The terminology robust features was introduced by Ian Porteous as they are features of a surface wich be followed when the surface is deformed. They capture important aspects of the surface geometry. He talks about it on his book "Geometric Differentiation for the intelligence of curves and surfaces".
I'm currently studying parabolic, sub-parabolic and ridge curves. I'd like to know if there's any geometric intuition behind those curves (and, if possible, a reference for understanding this intuition better).