Woodworking Network: In Spatial Timber Assembly (STA), robotic arms fabricate and assemble wooden parts into extremely complex geometric buildings and rooms - spaces that were previously impossible to build with timber. See the robots motion-cut, lift, translate, rotate, and move around below.
14 comments:
Wow. I saw an article a few weeks ago about robots that could cut wood making the shop a "safer" place and was completely underwhelmed by what they were able to do, but these robots are exponentially more impressive, and scary. I still do not fear that I will loose my job to a robot any day soon, but their ability is quite stunning. Of course there will always need to be people for the programming and design that goes into the robots (I think, right?), so even if these become ubiquitous, it does not mean they will totally take over. I like that they are being used to do things that otherwise could not be accomplished (although I am not so sure what they were building could not be done by humans as well). I like the idea of expanding our capabilities as opposed to replacing people with robots that do the same thing.
Wow what an interesting read this was! I am always fascinated by the things that can be achieved when combining bleeding edge technology with tried and true practices such as carpentry. Usually I am somewhat unimpressed by robots who are able to pick up a box or go for a jog, but these ones definitely take it up a notch! I feel like robots are an interesting part of today's technology, and I wonder what sort of impact it will have if or when they make it into the commercial world. Could theater technicians lose their jobs to robots? Somehow I doubt it. Although new tech like self-driving cars could render millions of jobs obsolete (Truckers for example), I don't think a robot could successfully recreate human imagination and ingenuity. If they ever get to that point, I guess we'll have to compete! But that probably won't be for a loooooong time.
I can’t say I’m convinced that these structures are impossible for humans to build. There are some incredibly skilled carpenters out there who can no doubt build this structure just as well, but much slower. The article even says its impossible “without sufficient effort.” I think any carpenter tasked with this project would be putting in sufficient effort so their entire claim is flawed. Can I build this? No. Can a highly skilled stage carpenter build this? Maybe. Can I highly skilled shipwright build this? Absolutely. Robots are great and all, they are quick precise and cheap (in the long run) but I don’t think it helps anyone case to make arguably false statements. Now, I do think there is a use for these robot things in the general construction industry. Robots are already being used to an extent in the fabrication of small complex parts so why not scale that up.
I really like this idea and concept. Initially clicked on this article because I thought it may have been another click bait article and I wanted to learn what it really was. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that this article is actually about what the headline says. I think this is a good idea for extremely complex wooden structures, so nothing that we would really do in theatre. While I like this idea, I do think it diminishes the skills that people carpenters have. Carpenters who can make extremely intricate wooden pieces have so much talent that I've always been impressed with them. I'm interested to see if this new technology will pick p and eventually make its way down the pipe to theatre and scenery building. We'll see how far this idea goes because it seems like the hype may fade and kill this project before it really gets going.
When I saw the other robot article a couple of weeks ago, I was not scared of robots taking over carpentry jobs. This video, however, frightens me. I am a huge fan of technological progress and this robots ability to create strong structures using triangles really speaks to the scientific nerd within me. However, the fact that this is not something a human can even do is scary and makes me question the future of carpentry. Although the assembly still requires someone to manually bolt the pieces together, it seems as if the art of carpentry is being lost. The relationship between the wood and the carpenter is gone, replaced by someone behind a computer and a robot. I do think that these robots, though advanced and impressive, are slow and expensive so I am not sure how quickly they will become universal. Until then, I hope people start to appreciate carpentry so that these robots need only to be used in specific situations.
Overall this article blows my mind because its not something I never expected to actually see. While I agree with Drew that, it might not actually be impossible for humans to build the structure but certainly takes a high level of skill and precision. I think the precision is one of the aspects that makes the structure hard to build. But now that we know the technology exists how far could we go? How complex could structures get? That is the heart of the question, is what could having these robots enable us to build? However, I wonder how this technology would make it to the industry? It is revolutionary technology but most our structures aren’t nearly that complex? But at the same time, I don’t think robots will entirely overtake industry because of they can only do what they are told to do, and thus require some sort of human interaction.
A robot can do this because a human can’t? Are we forgetting that it was a human who programmed all of the data for the robot to do this in the first place? And why can’t a human be capable of building such a complex shape? I’m not afraid of robots taking over my job. I have a defined skill set. Could a robot build sets? Sure. That doesn’t mean that anyone wants them to. The reality about this is that it’s not that we are fascinated by robots and think wow that’s really cool that has led us down this path, it is that more so now, people have become lazy. The trades that were once taught, even at our own school, are not taught as much. We value fast and cheap and quick over slow, costly, and well built items. Now everyone wants ikea, but even then some people don’t want to have to assemble it. I fear that this is just another nail in the coffin of skilled laborers and trades. Jobs that once dominated this country now falling by the wayside. So while this may be cool, the harsh reality is that it is becoming the norm because of our own failure as a nation to teach carpentry, woodworking, and design in ways that should make the need for robots obsolete.
Ok, this is cool! Robots are now building an constructing structures. At least that's what we are on the edge of seeing in the world soon. Until they are able to make things happen much more quickly and independently, it seems as though this dream may be still out of our reach as of today. The level of precision that they are able to produce using this technique is absolutely incredible. Seeing the angles that were cut on the joining members and the ability of the arms to hold the items at such exacting locations and stability is impressive. This assisted fabrication of structures allows for much more complexity and precision to be used and specified. My biggest complaint is both the amount of time it takes to build a small structure and that it is out of an unstable material. The material is an issue because one is using incredibly precise processes on something that will change regularly depending on environmental conditions. Then, in addition, the amount of time seen in the sped up time lapse for the robot to build the structure was many, many days and nights. This lack of speed its where the downfall would be.
This is just another great example of robots moving forward in the world and learning and being designed in ways to make human tasks in particular ones that we don't necessarily want more obsolete. I think that with a few minor adjustments these machines could be made so that they could make the human portion of this "assembly line" obsolete and have entire homes go straight from design to build with no human interaction required. This idea though that they already have going with the human doing some of the more advanced task or more "feel" type of things is interesting as well as I already see it with things like cars and machining of things with high tolerances but I wonder just how much faster things like building a house would go in this set up and if it is at all possible to have these machines rather then be set up in one space be set up out in the field say off of a grid or a truck bed that can simply pull up next to the job site.
While this story focuses on a specific instance of robotics, it opens up a much larger and important conversation about the role of robotics in the future of our economy and society. This is fascinating to see how far robotics has come that it can do advanced woodworking like this, and it shows the bright side of robotics augmenting tasks that humans previously could not perform. However, if it is clear that robots can complete tasks more advanced than humans, then it obviously also means that robots are capable of doing simple tasks that humans can complete. We as a society need to seriously prepare for the ramifications of these sorts of advances, because this is not a problem twenty years down the road - this is a problem that exists now and has the potential to affect millions of jobs. Moreover, robotics advancements are not static, as time goes by this robot will be able to complete even more advanced tasks, slowly eliminating more and more human jobs.
This is the way of the future. I love robots and machinery like this. The ability for them to enable us to make things that previously would have been impossible is so fascinating. I would pay lots of money to see these robots in action and to be able to talk with the designers. These robots remind me of one that I saw in New Orleans. It was a foam carving robot that was used to help make the statues for Mardi Gras. When I first started learning how to use computer modeling software, I never really thought that it would be useful in my everyday life, but now that things are developing the way that they are, it may soon be an invaluable asset. If this is where we have gotten to already, I can’t wait to see what comes in the next few years. Maybe I’ll be the one designing the next ones.
This is unbelievably fascinating. I thought they would move faster, but I would most definitely not want these robots to be slinging around 2x4s at top speed. That would be so scary. It’s really interesting to see how the robots cut and drill the 2x4. That programing must have been incredibly complicated so that the robot knows exactly where to do everything especially when the wood has complex angles. I know these structures are very complex and apparently too complex for humans to create, but I fail to see why that is significant in the grand scheme of things. It does make it so it can manage without reinforcement plates because of the geometric structure, but this structure doesn't look very practical. It makes houses that aren't square. How do you put your furniture in that building. The more I think about this the more upsetting it is. Furniture isn’t made in any geometric shape.
This article is awesome this is the second time I have seen an article about th she constructing robots and each time my brain say that they are cooler than before. This is because before they had a limited functionality on what they could build if I remember correctly it was primarily simple structures but now we are moving forward into more complex structures this is awesome. This will probably end up helping the world of theatre in the long run, because while these robots are now able to do more complex builds as Jermey pointed out the time lapse is what makes it seem fast. This probably will open up the avenue of not needing much in the way of skilled labor to do tedious and time consuming jobs such as cut listing and pre drilling. Skilled labor will probably be able to focus on the actual way the fabrication goes together like legos, and I like legos.
Wow, this is so cool. I am always stunned by the things technology can do. Just watching the video in this article, I feel like this is one of the best machine helping human scenarios I have seen. All the people working together to input code and make sure the technology works how it is supposed to, then the robots execute it in such a way that is not possible (and not as seamless) with multiple carpenters. I also appreciate how the robots do the simple but heavy lifting part, saving others from a lot of strain and danger, and they are helping by putting things in place so someone else can bolt or screw in whatever is needed. The precision is quite amazing with all the different miter cuts that was used on this building piece. I wonder why I haven't seen more places with machines such as these.
-Pablo Anton
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