Chainsaw-Wielding Robot Carves Furniture Out of Wood Logs

By: | March 12th, 2014

High-tech ultra precise robotics for minimal waste could be the future of the furniture industry.  But a chainsaw-wielding robot arm might be an unusual way to demonstrate the idea.

The idea took off at 2013 Interior Design Week in Cologne, Germany, where an industrial robot with a chainsaw was programmed to carve stools from a single piece of wood.

The stools are part of a product line called kkaarrlls. Germany-based design firm Echtwald started this program with the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. This project is known as 7xStool.

Working of Chainsaw-Wielding Robot: 

7xStool project is a live performance where stools are carved right from a tree trunk by the robot through a complex set of movements that would be really difficult even for a skilled human to follow. Once complete, the whole thing is disassembled to reveal two wooden stools and some interesting shapes. The stools are later auctioned off to the members of the audience.

Designed by European designers Tibor Weissmahr and Tom Pawlofsky, the 7xStool is produced two at a time by the chainsaw-wielding industrial arm. The technique offers nearly scrap-free results. If all wooden furniture was made with this efficiency, we would be able to save our forests to some extent.

See the robot in action:

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Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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