ABSTRACT
Humans effortlessly perform remarkable manipulation tasks that our robots šnd impossible. We push, pull, slide, throw, pick up, catch, and play with our environment. Our robots, on the other hand, treat the world like the Towers of Hanoi: a geometry problem that is solved by search. While this paradigm has produced remarkable, automated factories and world-beating chess programs, it constrains the dexterity of our robots. At QoLT, we want our robots to perform useful tasks in the home with and around people: to help an elderly person out of bed and help her put on a shirt, to push her wheelchair to the dining table, and to prepare a meal (Figure 10.1).
