``A simple handshake would give them away''. This is how Anthony Hopkins' fictional character, Dr Robert Ford, summarises a particular flaw of the 2016 science-fiction \emph{Westworld}'s hosts. In the storyline, Westworld is a futuristic theme park and the hosts are autonomous robots engineered to be indistinguishable from the human guests, except for their hands that have not been perfected yet. In another classic science-fiction saga, scientists unlock the secrets of full synthetic intelligence, Skynet, by reverse engineering a futuristic hand. In both storylines, reality inspires fiction on one crucial point: designing hands and reproducing robust and reliable manipulation actions is one of the biggest challenges in robotics. Solving this problem would lead us to a new, improved era of autonomy. A century ago, the third industrial revolution brought robots into the assembly lines, changing our way of working forever. The next revolution has already started by bringing us artificial intelligence (AI) assistants, enhancing our quality of life in our jobs and everyday lives--even combating worldwide pandemics.

翻译：“一次简单的握手就会暴露他们”。这是安东尼·霍普金斯饰演的虚构角色罗伯特·福特博士对2016年科幻剧集《西部世界》中接待员特定缺陷的总结。在剧情中，西部世界是一个未来派主题公园，接待员被设计成与人类访客难以区分的自主机器人，唯独他们的双手尚未被完美打造。在另一部经典科幻系列中，科学家通过逆向工程研究一只未来之手，解锁了完全合成智能“天网”的秘密。在两个故事线中，现实在一个关键点上激发了虚构：设计双手并复现稳健可靠的操控动作是机器人领域最大的挑战之一。解决这一问题将引领我们进入一个更先进的自主化新时代。一个世纪前，第三次工业革命将机器人引入装配线，永远改变了我们的工作方式。下一场革命已然开始——人工智能助手被引入，提升我们在工作和日常生活中的生活质量，甚至助力抗击全球疫情。