ABB YuMi and the Race to Build Flat-Pack Furniture

From furniture workshops to the $1M robotic IKEA assembly challenge: how ABB YuMi's two arms and ABB force control fit the job of building furniture.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/23/20261 min read

A century ago a chair or a cupboard came out of a workshop full of people. Furniture factories employed dozens of joiners and finishers, and each piece passed through many pairs of hands before it reached a shop. Machines cut the wood, but fitting and sanding it was still skilled manual work.

Old group photo of about a hundred furniture factory workers in front of a building
Old group photo of about a hundred furniture factory workers in front of a building

Workers of the Anton Bencze & Son furniture factory in Hungary, 1911. Photo: Istvan Oldal / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Flat-pack changed who does the last step. Factories now cut and drill panels with CNC machines and ship them in a box, and the buyer does the assembly at home with an Allen key. Anyone who has built a wardrobe on the living-room floor knows how fiddly that job is for humans, never mind robots.

Dark wooden flat-pack chair parts and a cardboard box on a wooden floor
Dark wooden flat-pack chair parts and a cardboard box on a wooden floor

Flat-pack furniture parts waiting to be assembled at home. Photo: Bruce Szalwinski / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

On September 14, BitRobot, Unitree, Lightwheel and the Singapore Institute of Technology announced a Robotic IKEA Furniture Assembly Challenge with up to $1 million in prizes. The first phase is an IKEA UTTER children's table, and it will be presented at IROS 2026.

Store shelves displaying assembled wooden desks and bookcases
Store shelves displaying assembled wooden desks and bookcases

Ready-to-assemble desks and shelves on sale in a store. Photo: Doug Coldwell / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The challenge tests bimanual coordination and dexterity, which is where ABB's YuMi fits. YuMi has two seven-axis arms that were designed for small-part assembly next to people, so it can hold a small part steady with one hand and drive a fastener with the other, much as a person does.

Two-armed ABB YuMi robot assembling small parts at a bench beside a worker
Two-armed ABB YuMi robot assembling small parts at a bench beside a worker

ABB's dual-arm YuMi was designed for small-part assembly next to people. Photo: ABB

Fitting parts also depends on feel. ABB robots with force control can push a peg into a hole, sensing the resistance and adjusting when things don't line up, the same way ABB uses them to fit parts on car lines. In timber construction, larger ABB arms already handle and join wooden panels at startups like AUAR.

ABB robot inside a car body fitting interior parts
ABB robot inside a car body fitting interior parts

ABB robots use force control to fit parts on a car assembly line. Photo: ABB

I expect the first robot furniture assemblers to work in stores and warehouses, building display pieces or delivering items ready to use. A robot that assembles furniture in your living room is further off. It will need what YuMi already uses on a factory bench, two coordinated arms and force sensing, plus a lot more patience with missing screws.

Large white ABB robot lifting a wooden panel in a workshop
Large white ABB robot lifting a wooden panel in a workshop

An ABB robot handling a timber panel at AUAR's robotic building cell. Photo: ABB

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