Researchers with DARPA's Machine Common Sense (MCS) program demonstrated a series of improvements to robotic system performance over multiple experiments. Just as infants must learn from experience, MCS seeks to construct computational models that mimic the core domains of child cognition for objects (intuitive physics), agents (intentional actors), and places (spatial navigation).

Using only simulated training, recent MCS experiments demonstrated advancements in systems' abilities – ranging from understanding how to grasp objects and adapting to obstacles, to changing speed/gait for various goals.

Nextbigfuture believes that work on humanoid robots will result in robots that can walk and pick up and place objects at human levels within a couple of years. This will result in a massive change in world economics. I describe the impact in this video.