  This paper describes our recent research effort to bring the computer
intelligence into the physical world so that robots could perform physically
interactive manipulation tasks. Our proposed approach first gives robots the
ability to learn manipulation skills by "watching" online instructional videos.
After "watching" over 200 instructional videos, a functional object-oriented
network (FOON) is constructed to represent the observed manipulation skills.
Using the network, robots can take a high-level task command such as "I want
BBQ Ribs for dinner," decipher the task goal, seek the correct objects to
operate on, and then generate and execute a sequence of manipulation motions
that can deal with physical interactions in a new condition. To best facilitate
manipulation motions in the physical world, we also developed new grasping
strategies for robots to hold objects with a firm grasp to withstand the
disturbance during physical interactions.
