https://www.wired.com/story/why-robots-should-learn-to-build-crappy-ikea-furniture/

It’s become a veritable rite of passage for humans settling into their first apartments: Assemble a piece of Ikea furniture from a cryptic set of pictures without having either you, or the item in question, fall apart.

What better way, thought researchers at the University of Southern California, to torture teach robots to manipulate the world around them. Following in the footsteps of researchers who last year got robot arms to assemble those classic Stefan chairs (roboticists love Ikea), they’re gifting the robotics community with a new simulator to train robots how to assemble low-budget Swedish furniture. Ultimately, they hope machines will begin to approach our own dexterity and adaptability to novel objects. Ladies and gentlemen and robots, grab your Allen wrenches.