Manual2Skill: Learning to Read Manuals and Acquire Robotic Skills for Furniture Assembly Using Vision-Language Models
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Feb 14, 2025
Abstract
Humans possess an extraordinary ability to understand and execute complex
manipulation tasks by interpreting abstract instruction manuals. For robots,
however, this capability remains a substantial challenge, as they cannot
interpret abstract instructions and translate them into executable actions. In
this paper, we present Manual2Skill, a novel framework that enables robots to
perform complex assembly tasks guided by high-level manual instructions. Our
approach leverages a Vision-Language Model (VLM) to extract structured
information from instructional images and then uses this information to
construct hierarchical assembly graphs. These graphs represent parts,
subassemblies, and the relationships between them. To facilitate task
execution, a pose estimation model predicts the relative 6D poses of components
at each assembly step. At the same time, a motion planning module generates
actionable sequences for real-world robotic implementation. We demonstrate the
effectiveness of Manual2Skill by successfully assembling several real-world
IKEA furniture items. This application highlights its ability to manage
long-horizon manipulation tasks with both efficiency and precision,
significantly enhancing the practicality of robot learning from instruction
manuals. This work marks a step forward in advancing robotic systems capable of
understanding and executing complex manipulation tasks in a manner akin to
human capabilities.
