Robotic furniture assembly: task abstraction, motion planning, and control

This paper presents a novel framework for the complete assembly of a chair based on assembly instructions. First, the framework utilizes task templates and task compiler that construct robot tasks from the given assembly instructions such as connection relationships and assembly sequences. Each task template contains the motion planning and control strategies to accomplish each task. The task compiler converts assembly instructions into a series of robotic tasks by utilizing the task templates. Second, the framework proposes enhanced techniques related to the motion planning and control. In the motion planning, optimized goal configurations are computed away from the joint limit and singularity to successfully execute the subsequent assembly motion. Regarding control strategy, macro- and micro-motions are introduced to modularize motions covering various assembly types in the presence of uncertainties. To validate the framework, the assembly of a chair was performed completely. Additionally, the most used task, pin insertion task for both simple and complex shapes, was selected as a benchmark task and evaluated by the success rate. Video: https://youtu.be/iy6f0gsi3Uc .