1. A robotic system for executing a cooperative work task having multiple independent tasks, comprising: a plurality of robotic joints, wherein each of the robotic joints is independently controllable during execution of the cooperative work task; and a controller which controls the motion of the robotic joints during the execution of the cooperative work task; wherein the controller automatically groups the robotic joints into task-specific subsystems, assigns the multiple independent tasks to the task-specific subsystems upon reaching a task execution fork, and coordinates the independent execution of the task-specific subtasks by the respective task-specific subsystems after reaching the task execution fork.