We’ve all seen robotic dancing, where us humans try to mimic the stilted and often rather clumsy movements that we associate with the androids seen in sci-fi films. This perception of robotic movement stems from imperfect control systems in which the feedback lacks the precision to halt motion until it reaches a set position or an end-stop. But it needn’t be like this and indeed it isn’t what is in fact witnessed by factory robots that glide effortlessly around assembly lines or warehouses with a fluidity of movement that humans can’t even replicate. Similarly, the sophisticated robotic tools used by surgeons and scientists would have little value if their precision didn’t at least match the skill of their operators.