本文摘要：Robots have taken our jobs, learned our chores and beaten us at our own games.机器人抢走了我们的工作，学会了做到家务，还在比赛中击败了我们。

Robots have taken our jobs, learned our chores and beaten us at our own games.机器人抢走了我们的工作，学会了做到家务，还在比赛中击败了我们。Now researchers in Singapore say they have trained one to perform another task known to confound humans: figuring out how to assemble furniture from Ikea.现在，新加坡的研究人员们回应，他们早已顺利地训练出有机器人继续执行另一个备感吃惊的人类所熟悉的任务：想要办法装配宜家家具。A team from Nanyang Technological University programmed a robot to create and execute a plan to piece together most of Ikea’s $25 solid-pine Stefan chair on its own, calling on a medley of human skills to do so. The researchers explained their work in a study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics.南洋理工大学(Nanyang Technological University)的一个团队给一个机器人编成了程序，让其建构并继续执行计划，自律装配宜家售价25美元的松木斯第芬(Stefan)椅的大部分，要做这一点必须各种人类的技能。

研究人员周三公开发表在《科学机器人》(Science Robotics)杂志上的研究报告对他们的研究展开了解释。“If you think about it, it requires perception, it requires you to plan a motion, it requires control between the robot and the environment, it requires transporting an object with two arms simultaneously,” said Dr. Quang-Cuong Pham, an assistant professor of engineering at the university and one of the paper’s authors. “Because this task requires so many interesting skills for robots, we felt that it could be a good project to push our capabilities to the limit.”“想一想，这必须洞察力，必须你对行动作出规划，必须在机器人和环境间的掌控，必须同时用两个机械臂载运一件物品，”范光強（Quang-Cuong Pham，音）博士说道，他是该校的工程学助理教授，也是该论文的作者之一。“因为这项任务对机器人来说必须大量有意思的技能，我们实在这不会是一个将我们的能力扩展到淋漓尽致的好项目。

”He and his Nanyang colleagues who worked on the study, Francisco Suárez-Ruiz and Xian Zhou, aren’t alone.他和南洋理工大学一道展开这项研究的同事弗朗西斯科·苏亚雷斯-鲁伊斯(Francisco Suárez-Ruiz)及周宪（音）并非独行者。In recent years, a handful of others have set out to teach robots to assemble Ikea furniture, a task that can mimic the manipulations robots can or may someday perform on factory floors and that involves a brand many know all too well.近年来，其他一些人也开始教教机器人装配宜家家具，这个任务可以仿真机器人有朝一日需要或者有可能在工厂里展开的操作者，而且它牵涉到一个许多人熟悉的品牌。“It’s something that almost everybody is familiar with and almost everybody hates doing,” said Ross A. Knepper, an assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University, whose research focuses on human-robot interaction.“这是完全每个人都熟知，也是每个人都喜欢做到的事情，”康奈尔大学(Cornell University)计算机科学助理教授罗斯·A·克内珀(Ross A. Knepper)说道，他的研究主要探讨在嵌入式方面。

In 2013, Mr. Knepper was part of a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that presented a paper on its work in the area, describing the “IkeaBot” the team created, which could assemble the company’s Lack table on its own.2013年的时候，克内珀曾是麻省理工大学(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)一个研究团队的成员，该团队公开发表了一篇涉及领域的论文，对他们建构的“宜家机器人”(IkeaBot)展开了叙述，这个机器人可以自律装配宜家的拉科(Lack)桌。But chairs, with backs, stretchers and other parts, pose a more complex challenge; hence the interest of the Nanyang researchers.但装配具有椅、横档及其他部件的椅子可玩性更大，因此这引发了南洋理工大学研究人员的兴趣。Their robot was made of custom software, a three-dimensional camera, two robotic arms, grippers and force detectors. The team chose only off-the-shelf tools, in order to mirror human biology.他们的机器人由尤其设计的软件、一个立体照相机、两只机械臂、手部器及力感应器构成。

为了仿效人类生物学，该团队自由选择的都是有数的现成工具。“Humans have the same hardware to do many different things,” Dr. Pham said. “So this is kind of the genericity that we wanted to mimic.”“人类有某种程度的硬件来做到许多有所不同的事情，”范光強说道。“所以这就是我们想要仿效的泛型。”Also like humans, the robot had a little help to start: It was fed a kind of manual, a set of ordered instructions on how the pieces fit together. After that, though, it was on its own.某种程度地，像人类一样，这款机器人在开始装配家具时也没有获得什么协助：获取给它的是某种指南，一系列关于如何将各个部位装配一起的指令。

在那之后，它就仅靠自己了。The robot proceeded in three broad phases, spread out over 20 minutes 19 seconds.机器人分三个大阶段开始展开，共计耗时20分钟19秒。First, like humans, it took some time to stare at the pieces scattered before it.首先，像人类一样，它花上了些时间盯着布满在自己面前的各个部位。The robot spent a few seconds photographing the scene and matching each part to the one modeled in its “manual.”机器人花上了几秒，对眼前的景象展开照片，把每个部位与“指南”里的展开给定。

Then, over more than 11 minutes, the robot devised a plan that would allow it to quickly assemble the chair without its arms knocking into each other or into the various parts.然后，在11分钟多的时间里，机器人设计了一个方案，需要让它在机械臂不互相撞击或撞有所不同零件的情况下，较慢将椅子装配一起。Finally, it put the plan in motion over the course of nearly nine minutes. The robot used grippers to pick up the wooden pins from a tray and force sensors at its “wrists” to detect when the pins, searching in a spiral pattern, finally slid into their holes. Working in unison, the arms then pressed the sides of the chair frame together.最后，它在近9分钟时间里继续执行了这个方案。

机器人利用手部器从一个架上里拿着木钉，坐落于其“腰部”的力感应器不会以螺旋方式展开搜寻，检测木钉何时应该被重复使用孔中。两条机械臂协同合作，然后将椅子的框架向内松开，合在一起。Of course, the robot didn’t succeed right away. There were several failed attempts along the way and researchers tweaked the system before the robot was finally able to assemble the chair on its own.当然，机器人也不是马上就获得了顺利。

期间也有不少告终，在机器人最后需要自律装配椅子前，研究人员对系统展开了不少改动。The accomplishment was the culmination of three years of work, but the team is eager to see what else it can automate, Dr. Pham said.这一成就是三年希望的结果，但范光強说道，该团队还渴求看见这个机器人能自动操作者其他什么东西。

With the help of experts in artificial intelligence, the researchers may be able to create a robot that can build a chair by following spoken directions or by watching someone else do it first, he said. Or maybe, he said, they’ll eventually develop one that assembles furniture in a way that is truly human: by ignoring the manual altogether.他说道，在人工智能专家的协助下，研究人员们可能会建构出有一款机器人，它不会理会语音指令，或先观赏别人装配，再行自己来动手。又或者，他说道，他们最后能研发出有一款能确实以人类的方式装配家具的机器人：几乎忽略装配指南。

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