It's not easy (or it would have been done already!) but I don't think it's a pipe dream. A lot of the computer vision capabilities that are taken for granted to

It's not easy (or it would have been done already!) but I don't think it's a pipe dream. A lot of the computer vision capabilities that are taken for granted today would've been pipe dreams a few years ago. It's true that the process is data hungry. But this isn't such a big problem in some cases. Having a few dozens or more of robot arms just figuring out stuff by trial and error isn't such a big deal (you don't have to do this at the customer's shop floor...). For self driving cars and drones this isn't such a great idea (though it has been tried to some extent). That's where simulation and more clever algorithms come in. Including, of course some prior knowledge, like you are implying. I don't think anybody expects to "transform manufacturing" by just throwing REINFORCE into a random KUKA arm.