Robots Assemble Ikea Chair in 20 Minutes

Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Technological University
TT
20

Robots Assemble Ikea Chair in 20 Minutes

Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Technological University

Robots in Singapore have completed a task that many people dread: the assembly of Ikea furniture.

Scientists have spent three years to develop two robotic arms that can assemble Ikea flat-pack furniture in just 20 minutes.

The robot took just 20 minutes and 19 seconds to put together a wooden chair from the Swedish furniture retailer. Both arms are equipped with grips and a 3-D camera

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore developed algorithms to help the robot build the chair. They said the human-quality of robotic hands enables it to perform complex tasks.

Dr. Quang-Cuong Pham, from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, who was involved in the project, told The Daily Mail: 'If you have to assemble a piece of Ikea furniture yourself, you have to work out the sequence of actions.

"Through considerable engineering effort, we developed algorithms that will enable the robot to take the necessary steps to assemble the chair on its own."

Robots assembling a piece of Ikea furniture is a remarkable step as their role has been long limited to building cars on assembly lines.

This work, however, involves judging the correct movements to pick up and fit parts together, rather than repeating the same motions thousands of times on a production line.

Pham added: 'For a robot, putting together an Ikea chair with such precision is more complex than it looks.

'The job of assembly, which may come naturally to humans, has to be broken down into different steps, such as identifying where the different chair parts are, the force required to grip the parts, and making sure the robotic arms move without colliding into each other.'



Huawei Shows off AI Computing System to Rival Nvidia’s Top Product

An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Reuters)
An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Reuters)
TT
20

Huawei Shows off AI Computing System to Rival Nvidia’s Top Product

An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Reuters)
An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Reuters)

China's Huawei Technologies showed off an AI computing system on Saturday that one industry expert has said rivals Nvidia's most advanced offering, as the Chinese technology giant seeks to capture market share in the country's growing artificial intelligence sector.

The CloudMatrix 384 system made its first public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai where companies showcase their latest AI innovations, drawing a large crowd to the company's booth.

The system has drawn close attention from the global AI community since Huawei first announced it in April. Industry analysts view it as a direct competitor to Nvidia's GB200 NVL72, the US chipmaker's most advanced system-level product currently available in the market.

Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research group SemiAnalysis, said in an April article that Huawei now had AI system capabilities that could beat Nvidia.

Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system. A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.

Huawei has become widely regarded as China's most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces US export restrictions.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been "moving quite fast" and named the CloudMatrix as an example.

The CloudMatrix 384 incorporates 384 of Huawei's latest 910C chips and outperforms Nvidia's GB200 NVL72 on some metrics, which uses 72 B200 chips, according to SemiAnalysis.

The performance stems from Huawei's system design capabilities, which compensate for weaker individual chip performance through the use of more chips and system-level innovations, SemiAnalysis said.

Huawei says the system uses "supernode" architecture that allows the chips to interconnect at super-high speeds and in June, Huawei Cloud CEO Zhang Pingan said the CloudMatrix 384 system was operational on Huawei's cloud platform.