Robot that fully assembles furniture of IKEA

Furniture of IKEA has been assembled furniture filled with flat packs and parts are packed all over the world, so there is little character information at the illustration center, the explanation should be too simple to assemble in anyway There may be falling into the situation that "the direction of combination has been reversed", "parts are left over ...". Meanwhile, the development of robots that assemble furniture fully automatically without having to work with their own hands after purchasing furniture at IKEA is proceeding.

[1509.04806] A Framework for Fine Robotic Assembly
http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.04806

Even Robots Suck at Building Ikea Furniture
http://gizmodo.com/even-robots-suck-at-building-ikea-furniture-1733364474

In the following movie, you can see the chair's legs and the wooden dowels for fixation assembled using two furniture assembling robots.

Bimanual pin insertion - YouTube


Two white, slender machines shown in the center of the screen are furniture assembling robots. It was developed by the research team of the Faculty of Engineering and Navigation at Nanyang University of Science and Technology in Singapore. By combining motion capture and programming of "motion to grasp" motion and force control, it enables precise movement of robot arm It is said that there is.


First, the robot on the left starts to move and the arm is lowered toward the desk. It seems that the two robots simulated both hands of a human being.


Grab a small dowel placed on the desk with accurate force control.


Then the robot on the right side moves toward the desk while widening the arm widely.


Grab a thin leg part firmly ......


Move to near the robot on the left.


Three holes for inserting dowels are available on the side of the leg parts.


Lower the dowels towards the leg parts and move forward with supreme while applying force in the downward direction.


I will move the dowels to the edge of the legs.


Return Dubbo to its original position ......


Next time we move the dowels backwards and measure the width of the leg parts from the position where the dowels fell. Because the holes for dowels are empty at the center of the leg parts, the mechanism that you can know the exact position to move the dowel by measuring the width of the leg parts.


Move Dubbo to the left side and move.


The dowel moved just above the hole, and it was able to fit into the hole completely.


Succeeded to push the dowel as it is, fix it.


Frankisco Suarez-Ruiz, head of the research team, said that the robot is planning a long-term development project for robots that can fully assemble furniture from scratch at the Sanyo Polytechnic University. "This time, It is the first step in robot development that assembles automatically. "

Also, in 2013, the research team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology has also released prototypes of "Automatic Furniture Assembly Robot".

IkeaBot: An Autonomous Multi-Robot Coordinated Furniture Assembly System - YouTube


It seems that two orange robots with caterpillars work together to assemble furniture. The robot on the left side holds the leg parts ......


Set on the back side of the table top of the desk.


Another robot hooks ring shaped arms to leg parts.


Then, the leg parts turn around and they are fixed to the top board.


While fixing the leg parts, one robot will pick up the second leg part.


Grasp with the arm firmly ......


Fit the screw attached to the tip of the leg part into the hole of the top board.


Just like the first one, a robot with a ring shaped arm turns around the leg parts and fixes it.


A rubber band is attached to the inside of a ring-shaped arm.


Put rod shaped parts inside the ring and switch on, the mechanism that the rubber band is tightened and the inside parts turn round and round.


You can turn any material as long as it fits into the ring, for example by turning the light bulb as shown below.


The back side looks like this.


If we can fix 4 desk legs using ring shaped arms, 2 robots pick up the top ... ...


Rotate the desk sideways.


Just grasp the top and move to the right side.


The desk is turned over, assembly is completed.