IKEA Working On Robotic Furniture That Acts According To Need

IKEA seems to be working on a line of robotic furniture. The company basically wants to "empower people to have big dreams for small homes." The company has announced its partnership with American startup Ori that is known for developing robotic furniture.

These robots will work towards solving the problems faced in small apartments. Both the companies will be introducing their new line called ROGNAN next year. The term "robotic furniture" might sound futuristic, but it's basically IKEA furniture on wheels.

A video shows a big wardrobe that also has a couch on one side and a bed on the other. If the users push a button the bed will slide under the unit and make more room for other activities. According to IKEA, the unit will be able to fit in a bed, couch, desk, and storage -- in roughly 10 square meters.

"Urban space is too valuable and scarce to be static and unresponsive," Ori says on its website. Users will have to wait for another year to get their hands on any of these robotic furnitures, but IKEA claims to offer more information in the coming days.

As we move forward, we will soon be seeing more of such devices. In the future, there could be innovative ways to charge these robots or devices as well. According to new research published by the Advanced Energy Materials journal, several devices can be recharged through their movement only. The process will use the Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs).

With furniture, we might also witness a shift in the process of making houses. An Italian 3D-printing company WASP (World's Advanced Saving Project) has shown a 3D printed a hut structure, dubbed Gaia, using a combination of 3D-printed concrete and a mud-based material. What's the total cost of building the structure you ask? It's just $1,000.

"The material consists of clay earth, rice straw, and rice husk," Massimo Moretti, CEO of WASP, told Digital Trends. "The natural fibers allow [us to minimize] the shrinkage of the dry mixture and confer mechanical strength to the layered wall. By using the wet pan mill, the raw mixture has reached an interesting homogeneous plasticity that permits a good resolution in printed texture."