You mean the word robots in the context of members online, as shown on the top page: Those are generally web crawlers and other automated tools. For example Google uses tools to update their search engines. Also tools which automatically make backups of websites. This terminology is not specific to EliteTrader.
I thought those robots were HFT machines and Hedge Funds trying to gain an advantage in the market by gauging what are the Elite traders of the world talking about and trading,
Something wrong with the number of "members"? 11 vs 20 Q Users Online Now comagnum, OddTrader, fordewind, MoreLeverage, bigspeculate, lylec305, lawrence-lugar, stevegee58, torremo, Martinghoul, soulfire Total: 241 (members: 20, guests: 154, robots: 67) UQ
It is clear: 11 members are using 20 aliases when posting. That ratio will be close to reality. We could check it if Marketsurfer would be on the list with his X aliases. Adding Marketsurfer might increase the members by 25.
That's because some members have set their privacy preferences to not show their names in the "Users Online Now" list. So they are counted in the total but their actual names are not shown.