Autonomous Robotic Assembly

MERL introduces a new autonomous robotic assembly technology, offering an initial glimpse into how robots will work in future factories. Unlike conventional approaches where humans set pre-conditions for assembly, our technology empowers robots to adapt to diverse scenarios. We showcase the autonomous assembly of a gear box that was demonstrated live at CES2024. We have developed fundamental techniques in the areas of tactile sensing, computer vision, contact-implicit optimization & control in order to achieve autonomous assembly. All these techniques are fundamental towards creating systems which can operate in unstructured environments by reasoning and planning about complex manipulation behaviors. They also allow robots achieve robust execution and precision. Similar to human reasoning, we are on a path to developing physical intelligence where robots can learn the rules and effects of their actions by observing and interacting with their environment.