Welcomed by mugs, auditory technology that's mechanical (8)
I believe the answer is:
robotics
I'm afraid I can't even guess how this answer relates to the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for robotics that I've seen before include "Branch of technology - I rob Scot (anag)" , "Branch of engineering concerned with automatons" , "street dancing" , "Science of developing automatons" , "modern technology" .)