In what will go down as one of the greatest robotics experiments ever, a few years back researchers in Japan let a robot loose in a mall and watched how kids reacted. Far from the sense of wonder you might expect from children, the mood soured into a sense of concern for the next generation, as the kids proceeded to kick and punch the robot and call it names. But maybe the kids were on to something--maybe we should be challenging the robots, albeit in more constructive ways, instead of always holding their hands as they learn to navigate our world. To that end, researchers at the University of Southern California have shown that when working in a simulation, you can give robots "tough love" by trying to knock objects out of their hands, and it'll actually help them better learn to grasp objects. The experiment took place entirely in simulation, as so much robot training does these days.