When it's time to get new furniture the first place many turn to is Ikea. But too many know the frustration, anger, and agitation of assembling everything together. Skylar Tibbits and the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT may have found a way put the Ikea frustration to rest. As part of the Fluid Assembly Furniture project, the researchers are currently working on a self-assembling chair. But before you scour the internet looking for one of these miracles there's a catch. Not only is the chair submerged in water, it's also 15cm tall. A video shows six white blocks in a tank being shaken around by turbulence until they form together by the use of magnets. Though the process looks speedy, it actually took seven hours for the assembly. Speaking about speeding up the process Bail Zuniga, lead researcher, said “Finding a way to make the pieces more interchangeable would increase the probability of the pieces finding their matches. Thus resulting in a faster assembly.”
It looks simple, but it's more complicated than it sounds. The size, weight, and geometry of each piece has to be taken into consideration. These variables effects how efficiently the chair builds itself. Each piece has a unique magnet allowing each one to find its match through trial and error. Currently, the team is gathering data to figure why certain materials and shapes work better than others. They hope to make a self-assembling chair that's big enough for humans to actually sit in. But for now keep those Ikea instructions handy.
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