Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2000
At the end of the 20th century robot technology became well established as a reliable and economic source in industrial automation. On the other hand, it is claimed that even a general six or seven degree of freedom robot arm or a multifingered robot hand designed carefully and manufactured with very high precision lacks versatility in its use in a variety of tasks that must be done instead of a human. The lack of versatility or the clumsiness of present industrial robots is not due to the fine mechanism of such robots. Rather, the clumsiness shows a lack of our knowledge of everyday physics, in particular, a lack of knowledge of physics involving grasping and handling of various kinds of things and manipulating them with certain dexterity, in which tactile and vision sensings must be well coordinated.
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