This one's for the ... birdhouse? Ph.D. students Ben Cohen (University of Pennsylvania) and Mike Phillips (Carnegie Mellon University), along with research engineer Ellis Ratner (RobotWits, LLC) teamed up to create a video demonstration at CMU's Robotics institute on autonomous robot assembly — in this case, how a flexible automation model builds a birdhouse and what specifically goes into it (naming the video "Project Birdhouse: Autonomous Robot Assembly: Robot with a Nailgun!" was just icing on the cake).
What makes this particular bot unique when it comes to construction is that most assembly robots are fixed automation models — only good for a single, programmed tax and usually placed side-by-side other machines in an assembly line. In comparison, flexible automation models can complete multi-varied, customizable tasks and/or produce customized products.
The robot featured in the video was designed to complete "imprecise" household tasks such as sweeping and can "leverage experience to plan faster."
Cohen, Ratner and Phillips teamed up with Professor Kern Maass from Appalachian State University to design the three "robot-enabled tools" it needed to build the birdhouse: a nailgun, a vacuum gripper and a turntable. Using a search-based planning approach for programming purposes, the scientists constructed a series of alignment behaviors to aid the robot in moving the necessary pieces into place and for pressing the nailgun into precise locations. It was up to the robot, however, to decide where and how to pick up the wood panels as well as which nail to hammer in first.
Completion took around 20 minutes.
"I would say that kids also take around this timeframe," said Philips.
"I think the work that we've shown here might lead to future advances in flexible automation or robots being used in environments which are a little less structured," Phillips also remarked.
