The original of this article was published by The Conversation on April 24, 2017, and it can be accessed at https://theconversation.com/making-robots-that-can-work-with-their-hands-73831 It’s quite common for humans – especially those who work in manufacturing – to tie a knot, strip the casing off a cable, insert a pin in a hole or use a hand tool such as a drill. They may seem like simple tasks, but are really very complex and involve extremely fine finger and hand motions.