A team of researchers from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NUT) have developed a pair of robotic arms capable of tackling one of the hardest tasks known to man. Assembling Ikea furniture.
This video shows the two robotic arms get to grips with an Ikea Stefan chair as part of a study published on April 18 in the journal Science Robotics. The robots were able to autonomously construct the chair in 20 minutes using the pressure sensors, 3D cameras and the industrial gripper arms.
“Dexterous manipulation is…[a] marker of human intelligence. Yet, demonstrations
of autonomous manipulation have been so far restricted to elementary tasks,” said the research team led by professor Quang-Cuong Pham in a statement released by NUT. “A main reason is that complex manipulation tasks in human environments require mastering multiple skills—from visual and tactile localization to motion planning, force control, and bimanual coordination—and managing their complex interactions.”
The research team said the study opened the possibility for robots to work autonomously in new fields in manufacturing or logistics where traditional robotic assembly lines are not viable. Credit: Nanyang Technological University Singapore via Storyful
