Somewhat relevant: when I first searched for those videos I searched for “robot that tests Ikea chairs by sitting on them” or something. I got lots of results, but every one of them was about robots that were building furniture, not testing it. To actually get the results I wanted I needed to say “furniture testing machine”.
So, I guess the Internet doesn’t think those are actually robots, so they don’t worry about their purpose.
Here’s a video from 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s_gyzshNPQ
And another one from 2012 testing cupboards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW6RsT4w2hY
Ooh, here’s ine from 2018 where a machine hit 9,999,999 tests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbMB-qG_x8o
“What is my purpose?”
“You open and close drawers.”
“Oh my God.”
Somewhat relevant: when I first searched for those videos I searched for “robot that tests Ikea chairs by sitting on them” or something. I got lots of results, but every one of them was about robots that were building furniture, not testing it. To actually get the results I wanted I needed to say “furniture testing machine”.
So, I guess the Internet doesn’t think those are actually robots, so they don’t worry about their purpose.