What is Delaying the Manipulator Revolution?

Abstract

Despite two decades of work on mechanical manipulators and their associated controls, we do not see wide-spread application of these devices to many of the tasks to which they seem so obviously suited. Somehow, a variety of interacting causes has conspired to prevent them from fulfilling their much talked about potential. In part, this appears to be the result of a research effort that was too small, too fragmented, and too discontinuous in time.