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Scientists Create Robots That Can Assemble IKEA Furniture For You (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Although artificial intelligence systems may be able to beat humans at board games, we still have the upper hand when it comes to complicated manual tasks. But now, scientists have created robots that can do something even most humans struggle with: assemble an IKEA chair. Putting together a chair requires a combination of complex movements that, in turn, depends on such skills as vision, limb coordination, and the ability to control force. Until now, that was too much to ask of even a sophisticated robot. But researchers have finally broken the dexterity barrier by combining commercially available hardware, including 3D cameras and force sensors, to build two chair-building bots. To construct their IKEA masterpiece, the robots first took pictures to identify each part of the chair. An algorithm planned the motions the robots needed to manipulate the objects without causing any collisions; two robotic arms then performed those actions in concert. Feedback from force sensors also helped: When the robot needed to insert a pin into a hole, for example, it would slide the pin over the surface until it felt a change in force. The robots were able to put together the chair in a little over 20 minutes, which includes the 11 minutes and 21 seconds of planning time and 8 minutes and 55 seconds of actual assembly. The findings have been reported today in Science Robotics.
While this is admittedly an achievement, there is a far cry from this to robots being able to assemble general Ikea furniture better than -> Most - humans.
The robots in TFA were matched up with two left thumbed girls who look to have never performed anything manual more complicated than replacing a lightbulb.
The chair in question is only composed of 6 major elements that can only fit together one way and connecting pieces like screws, dowels & such. Not a single element needs nails or a floppy particleboard back that needs to be hammered in or wood screws in non pre-drilled holes. It's almost the simplest example they could find. I've assembled my share of Ikea furniture for 35 years and all of it was more complicated than this.
This isn't robots can do a better job than most humans, it's robots can perform a simple task better than some humans.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Well, the robot could just be the furniture. All it has to do is hold still with a sheet of plywood in its claw, voila, instant table
IKEA is cheaper because the customer does the assembly at home.
Um, no.
IKEA is cheaper because unassembled furniture is much smaller than assembled furniture.
This saves a hell of a lot in transport+storage and customers can fit it in their car instead of paying for delivery.
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