The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) seeks to address this problem by promoting innovation in human-supervised robotic technology for disaster-response operations.
The valve is between 10 cm and 40 cm in diameter, and gets turned counterclockwise. A full rotation earns a point.
V-REP offers path/motion planning functionality via a plugin wrapping the OMPL library.
Ros manipulation stack provides the core functionality for pick and place tasks.