Finally!

[tthurman]

Robot Conquers Assembling Ikea Furniture

[stigzler]

lol/wow. 

That's kinda important in a weird kinda way. 

[RIP-Felix]

They need to stop programming exact movements. Robots that will be useful in these situations will need AI - to figure it out based on the type of task and varying objects. If any carefully pre-programmed movement is off, the rest of the build is ruined. Alas, a brain is necessary to reason out a solution. So give it one, and watch it go insane! After all, that's what happens when the answer to "why am I here" is "to build IKEA furniture".

[tthurman]

Quote

Also like humans, the robot had a little help to start: It was fed a kind of manual, a set of ordered instructions on how the pieces fit together. After that, though, it was on its own.

The robot proceeded in three broad phases, spread out over 20 minutes 19 seconds.

First, like humans, it took some time to stare at the pieces scattered before it.

The robot spent a few seconds photographing the scene and matching each part to the one modeled in its “manual.”

Then, over more than 11 minutes, the robot devised a plan that would allow it to quickly assemble the chair without its arms knocking into each other or into the various parts.

Finally, it put the plan in motion over the course of nearly nine minutes. The robot used grippers to pick up the wooden pins from a tray and force sensors at its “wrists” to detect when the pins, searching in a spiral pattern, finally slid into their holes. Working in unison, the arms then pressed the sides of the chair frame together.

 

 

Of course, the robot didn’t succeed right away. There were several failed attempts along the way and researchers tweaked the system before the robot was finally able to assemble the chair on its own.

 

 

[stigzler]

*still impressed

[tthurman]

Agreed, it analyzed the situation at hand and devised a way to put it together without being told what to do.  That's pretty impressive, especial with a piece if IKEA 

[RIP-Felix]

It couldn't handle the whole task on it's own without "tweaking". That means the robot went insane and had to see a shrink, or the robot equivalent.

My question is, does it simply execute sub-routines for each task (scanning, planning, fitting, and assembly)? Or can it revise it's own sub-routines to 'create a solution' to a problem for which it has not been pre-programmed. I'll be impressed then. Still, it's a notable achievement.