Two ideas here
1: The robot is working alongside humans, and being controlled by them. It makes sense that the operator senses what the robot senses in a human way. If the robot bangs its knee for example, the operator would detect a banged knee. without having to think, what was that.

2: For the robot, it is working in a human environment, and needs to be able to get at the same things a human can. No use having 3 metre arms or be as big as a brief case, as the situation should not exist where it faces problems a human would not be able to solve too.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Tue 9 Feb 2010, 12:17, Reply)