Where the perception work started. I programmed Nao humanoid robots to compete in the RoboCup Soccer World Cup - a football match played entirely by autonomous robots, with no operator input once the whistle goes.
What that required
- Autonomous bipedal locomotion on a surface that shifts underfoot
- Real-time perception: finding the ball, the goal, teammates and opponents from a camera mounted on a head that is itself moving
- Multi-agent coordination, so several robots play as a team rather than crowding the ball
- Obstacle avoidance and object tracking driving the decision loop, with sensor input rather than a scripted routine
RoboCup is a useful teacher precisely because nothing is controlled. The lighting changes, the other team does not cooperate, and a robot that falls over has to get itself up. The habit it builds - treat perception as something you validate in the messy real case, not the tidy one - is the same instinct the later drone and industrial work depended on.