  ``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.
