AutoSaw Developed By Researchers To Help Carpenters With Robots
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have created a system with robot aids that can make wooden furniture.
The system is named AutoSaw. Users of the system could choose customized items through a wide range of templates for chairs, tables, and other types of furniture. According to MIT News, the team is also envisioning AutoSaw to create bigger projects in the future, such as porches.
The ability of customization lets AutoSaw be flexible for users who need exact measurements for particular spaces. For example, AutoSaw can create a table small enough to fit a tiny dining room area.
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"Robots have already enabled mass production, but with artificial intelligence (AI) they have the potential to enable mass customization and personalization in almost everything we produce," said Daniela Rus, the director and co-author of CSAIL, told MIT News.
With the issue that robots would someday replace human workers, the MIT team said the robots were not to replace human carpenters but to assist them with tasks. These robots would be small and mobile so that they would be more affordable and accessible for the carpenters who need assistance.
The robots were also made to ensure a safer working environment for carpenters. Many tasks of carpenters are dangerous, especially when the tools they use are low cost. The robots were created to have the ability to chop and cut wood.
"Every year thousands of carpenters injure their hands and fingers doing dangerous tasks such as sawing," the team said, told BBC.
According to CSAIL postdoc Jeffrey Lipton, these robots were also created with flexible limbs which would resemble the movements of a human carpenter instead of a machine. Through this, the accuracy of results would be ensured.
The AutoSaw system will be presented as a paper in May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Brisbane, Australia. Along with Rus and Lipton, PhD students Adriana Schulz and Andrew Spielberg, MIT Professor Wojciech Matusik, and undergraduate Luis Trueba authored the paper.
