robots outpaced their manufacture. It’s been a popular notion since someone got the idea of robotic nannies, robotic gardeners, and robotic housemaids. Everyone liked the vision of metal men doing our work for us for no pay beyond a ration of electrical power and a squirt of 3-0-1 oil now and then. Although there are now hundreds, even thousands, of robotic tools in use in factories around the world, the popular robot has yet to be invented. We dream of the appliance we can plug in, set to washing dishes and vacuuming floors, our helper in our less pleasant duties.