1. A robot for manipulating objects within an environment based on physical perception thereof, the robot comprising: at least one appendage for manipulating an object; a controller for operating the at least one appendage; a perception system for receiving physical information about the object and the environment from at least one sensor; an instance database comprising a plurality of instances at least some of which specify tasks to be performed by the appendage on the object, each task specifying an object and an action to be performed thereon and being defined in generic, spatially unspecified terms; and a task-execution module, responsive to the perception system, for causing the robot to execute the tasks via commands to the controller.