The hardest known human task has now been mastered by robots... assembling IKEA furniture (archive):
A team from Nanyang Technological University programmed a robot to create and execute a plan to piece together most of Ikea's $25 solid-pine Stefan chair on its own, calling on a medley of human skills to do so. The researchers explained their work in a study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics.
"If you think about it, it requires perception, it requires you to plan a motion, it requires control between the robot and the environment, it requires transporting an object with two arms simultaneously," said Dr. Quang-Cuong Pham, an assistant professor of engineering at the university and one of the paper's authors. "Because this task requires so many interesting skills for robots, we felt that it could be a good project to push our capabilities to the limit."
He and his Nanyang colleagues who worked on the study, Francisco Suárez-Ruiz and Xian Zhou, aren't alone. In recent years, a handful of others have set out to teach robots to assemble Ikea furniture, a task that can mimic the manipulations robots can or may someday perform on factory floors and that involves a brand many know all too well. "It's something that almost everybody is familiar with and almost everybody hates doing," said Ross A. Knepper, an assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University, whose research focuses on human-robot interaction.
In 2013, Mr. Knepper was part of a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that presented a paper on its work in the area, describing the "IkeaBot" the team created, which could assemble the company's Lack table on its own.
But chairs, with backs, stretchers and other parts, pose a more complex challenge; hence the interest of the Nanyang researchers. Their robot was made of custom software, a three-dimensional camera, two robotic arms, grippers and force detectors. The team chose only off-the-shelf tools, in order to mirror human biology.
Can robots assemble an IKEA chair? (DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aat6385) (DX)
Older: IkeaBot: An autonomous multi-robot coordinated furniture assembly system (DOI: 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630673) (DX)
Related: Ikea Buys "Gig Economy" Company TaskRabbit
Related Stories
Ikea has acquired TaskRabbit to gain an army of people that can assemble other people's furniture:
Ikea, the Swedish home goods retailer, said on Thursday that it had agreed to acquire TaskRabbit, a company known for, among other things, sending tool-wielding workers to rescue customers befuddled by build-it-yourself furniture kits.
Ikea said that it had signed an agreement to acquire the privately held TaskRabbit but declined to say how much it would pay. TaskRabbit will continue to operate independently once the deal closes, expected in October.
TaskRabbit uses its online marketplace to connect 60,000 freelance workers, or "taskers," with people looking to hire someone to do chores like furniture assembly, moving and handyman fixes. In their listings, workers specify their hourly rates.
"In a fast-changing retail environment, we continuously strive to develop new and improved products and services to make our customers' lives a little bit easier," said Jesper Brodin, chief executive of Ikea. "Entering the on-demand, sharing economy enables us to support that."
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday April 22 2018, @09:48PM (2 children)
Let's put these ^ guys out of work first.
They tookmuhjob!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday April 22 2018, @09:51PM (1 child)
Do you work for TaskRabbit, IKEA, a university, or are you a pile of robot parts?
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(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday April 22 2018, @11:24PM
I work(ed) for : FurryBallsPloppedMenacinglyOnTheTableIncorporated.com
Damn you Cartman! YOU MANIAC! YOU BLEW IT UP! AH, DAMN YOU! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 22 2018, @09:50PM (1 child)
is to assemble IKEA furniture. I, for one, am looking forward to our new underpeasants.
Note: I did realize that the title is tongue-in-cheek.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday April 22 2018, @11:27PM
Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday April 22 2018, @09:53PM (3 children)
are there robots to assemble and service the robots?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday April 23 2018, @12:36AM (1 child)
There probably will be someday long after us meatbags are exterminated.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 23 2018, @05:11PM
There are already multiple layers of machines working on material to feed to other machines which process it further to be handled and assembled by other machines in the global supply chain, and some of that path is already closed loop, while the open loop output goes to human consumers. There's increasing pressure to get costly humans out of the chain, and once the humans are out of the chain, they won't have any money to purchase the open loop end-products, so only the closed loop customers will remain.
Ominous early sign: conversion of cropland to produce fuel instead of food.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 23 2018, @05:07PM
What I want to know is: A) when will IKEA start making furniture for robots as well as humans, and more importantly B) when will they be discontinuing their furniture for humans offerings.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Redundant) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday April 22 2018, @09:58PM (4 children)
They call it the hardest task. But what's hard for us, sometimes it's very easy for cyber. Adding LONG numbers like my accountants do, easy for cyber, right? Not so easy for us. And a lot of things that are easy for us, not so easy for cyber. I give you a bowl full of Skittles, I mixed a couple of brown ones. Very easy to pick out the browns, right? Unless you're color blind, I know we have so many color blind guys. But cyber -- I'm sure they can do that now, the modern cyber can handle the Skittles. But it took a long time. Because it doesn't come naturally to cyber. And a lot of things don't come naturally to cyber. And some of them, it's going to be a long time before you see the cyber, the robots, doing those things. Making babies. Always we hear about a robot that makes other robots just like it. But I don't think we have it yet. Right? Because if we had it, we'd know. Because those robots would be everywhere. But for us to make babies, very easy. Sometimes we make them without even wanting to! It comes naturally. It took a long time to perfect, now it's PERFECTO. When they do the robot that makes baby robots, that's going to be so interesting!
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 22 2018, @10:20PM
Saved you a read.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 22 2018, @10:25PM (2 children)
+1 informative for the Van Halen M&M's reference. Excellent skills of association, by the way. Good association is the mark of a genius. The double-entendre of implied racism towards "brown" people is unsurpassed.
But, as is as important in any industrial automation task, removing the brown M&M's was not racist. Rather, it was a test to see if the staff working with extremely high voltages and in life-critical situations, like what you saw in the best Van Halen concerts, if the staff could be trusted with life-critical tasks. Rock concerts are serious business, you saw what happened when James Hettfield stepped on his own pyrotechnics. And Axl Rose didn't much help the situation that night either.
This is why I voted for you, because you understand how riots start.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @03:40PM
That sounds so stupid we're putting you on the short bus from now on.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:51AM
I wasn't thinking of Van Halen, to be perfectly honest with you. I was thinking of my son. But, thank you for the compliment. VERY SPECIAL because it comes from a big & smart robots guy. Thank you for your support!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Monday April 23 2018, @12:45AM (2 children)
Don't think I've ever put an IKEA together but I have assembled a few other pieces of furniture. I can only think of 1 that made me look at the instructions (turned out I got 2 L's instead of 1L 1R, or something equally stupid).
Then again, before I was a teenager I was not only assembling models (think circa 1968 1/16 scale B52 with 100+ pieces) and Heathkits.
I seriously hope the "I can't put my furniture together" is an urban meme, cuz if folks 40 years younger than me have issues with it then I don't know what to think.
Now that I think of it, I live in San Diego. If you can't put your furniture together I offer very competitive rates, starting at $150/hr.
/ um, competitive for software consultants
// hot chicks might get a discount, like up to 150% (can anyone out there do math?)
/// My bad, let me refer you to my HR dept. Hello? Yeah, it's me but I have my HR hat on
//// I paid what, $100 for my LLC? Money well spent, long as I don't want to file an IPO.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by lentilla on Monday April 23 2018, @08:26AM
No, "I can't put my furniture together" is a real thing.
Some IKEA pieces can be quite challenging. Like you, I have some experience putting things together - but there's the thing - we have the experience, the practice, and likely a native aptitude (which is what drew us to practice these things in the first place). Not everyone has these skills.
Aside from a basic ability to follow instructions and wield a hex key, there are a number of other skills that are needed:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @10:42AM
I seem to be one of the few who actually enjoy putting together IKEA items. It's like a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle that, after you have fun assembling it, you get to actually use it for something.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday April 23 2018, @01:25AM (2 children)
If you take 20 minutes to assemble 1 IKEA chair then you must be borderline retarded. 11 minutes to think about it and plan and then 9 minutes to assemble it. What are they union-robots or something?
OK I'll give it that hopefully it can save the "preparation and planning" and then just execute over and over again, but it might require certain things like all the parts being put in the, near, exact same places over and over again. I'm sure they could improve on speed to with better robot-equipment. It shouldn't really take a robot 9 minutes to assemble a chair.
So I don't think the handymen over at TaskRabbit (https://www.taskrabbit.com/) have to fear the assembling-robot-overlords just yet.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 23 2018, @02:59AM (1 child)
Same old slow ass robots [quora.com]. But at least it got the job done.
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(Score: 2, Funny) by tftp on Monday April 23 2018, @04:38AM
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday April 23 2018, @03:55AM
It looks like it was preprogrammed those instructions, and didn't have to work it out itself.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @10:42PM
One of the big advantages of IKEA furniture is that you can fit the flat pack boxes of unassembled furniture into a small car to take it home.
Preassembled furniture destroys this advantage. Sure, you could pay to have it delivered to your house instead, but that adds cost and you have to wait around your dwelling several hours. Anything that adds cost to IKEA furniture pretty much kills THE number one advantage it has over preassembled furniture. Might as well buy the real thing then.