MIT’s robot carpenters will saw wood for you, but you have to make the furniture yourself

Researchers from MIT have created a new system of robot-assisted carpentry that they say could make the creation of custom furniture and fittings safer, easier, and cheaper.

The system is made up of two parts: design software and semi-autonomous robots. Users select a template from the software (like a chair, table, or shed) and then adjust it to their liking, tweaking the size and shape. This order is then turned into instructions for the robots, which autonomously pick up and saw the necessary materials to the correct size. And it’s then up to the user to put the finished product together.

At the moment, the whole process is pretty basic, and involves a lot of human oversight and instruction. There are only four design templates to...

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