If are a fan of the Sci-Fi genre of the robot apocalypses you may well not want to give a robot a chainsaw to wield. If, on the other hand, you are a creative artist then it seems well worth the risk, as this video demonstrates.

In this case the robot is a standard industrial arm with an electric chainsaw mounted where the gripper would normally go. There is no doubt that a gas driven chainsaw would be far more threatening but even so, when the software starts it up you really hope that humans are well out of reach. 

Once running the clever part is the way the program takes the saw through a complex set of movements that would be tough for a skilled human to follow. Exactly what the robot is doing isn't obvious to the viewer, but once it is finished the whole thing is disassembled to reveal two wooden stools and some interesting shapes.

As the project's web page explains, the project resulted from coursework by young  designers at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design who recently exhibited at an interior design  event in Cologne. The highlight of the exhibition was a public performance, shown twice a day, where seven stackable stools were cut  straight from a tree trunk by an industrial robot with a chainsaw.

If you are a Sci-Fi fan then presumably you too breathe a sigh of relief when the plastic chain guard is fitted by the very brave man who is first on the scene.

So is this performance art or a demonstration of technology.? The audience was allowed to buy the stools after the performance so is it simply a sales opportunity. Personally I think a few minutes with a sander is required before putting any humanoid parts in contact with the wood.

The serious point is not just that robots are fun to watch, but they offer ways of creating things that would be too difficult for alternative methods. A robot with a chainsaw is just a subtractive 3D printer.

Perhaps the next step is carving wood to create sculptures or portraiture busts, or perhaps ice carving...

Both seem like good ideas for a startup.