Mental development for robots

It is desirable for humans to control robots through high-level commands, and it is tedious for humans to issue detailed commands to direct actions for every fraction of a second. However, it is extremely challenging for humans to program a robot to execute such high-level commands in unknown human environments. How can we address this fundamental challenge in robotics? Can, a robot develop its skills autonomously as a human infant or a higher animal does? What is the fundamental difference between the paradigm of mental development and that of traditional engineering? The paper consists mainly of short notes for a tutorial.