Visitors Now:
Total Visits:
Total Stories:
Profile image
By Next Big Future (Reporter)
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

Rethink robotics reveals its revolutionary Baxter Manufacturing Robot

Wednesday, September 19, 2012 7:33
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

From NextBigFuture.com

Technology Review reveals the Baxter robot from Rethink Robotics (renamed from Heartland Robotics)

Baxter, is six feet tall, 300 pounds, and a robot. For a hulking machine, Baxter is remarkably expressive. A pair of eyes on the screen that serves as a face stare down as the robot picks up plastic components, look concerned when it makes a mistake, and direct its glance at its next task when one is finished. It's cute. But the real point of these expressions is that they let workers nearby know instantly if Baxter is performing appropriately, and they provide clues to what it is about to do next. Even more amazing, when Baxter is done with one task, a fellow worker can simply show the robot how to start another. “Almost anyone, literally, can in very short order be shown how to program it,” says Chris Budnick, president of Vanguard Plastics. “It's a matter of a couple of minutes.”

Baxter is the first of a new generation of smarter, more adaptive industrial robots. Conventional industrial robots are expensive to program, incapable of handling even small deviations in their environment, and so dangerous that they have to be physically separated from human workers by cages. So even as robotics have become commonplace in the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, they remain impractical in many other types of manufacturing. Baxter, however, can be programmed more easily than a Tivo and can deftly respond to a toppled-over part or shifted table. And it is so safe that Baxter's developer, Rethink Robotics, which loaned Baxter to Vanguard Plastics, believes it can work seamlessly alongside its human coworkers.

B4INREMOTE-aHR0cDovLzIuYnAuYmxvZ3Nwb3QuY29tLy1GRDVkMHU3cUhnYy9VRmdXUmY3R202SS9BQUFBQUFBQWFGby9lZVpMdUpjS09Tby9zNjQwL2JheHRlcnJldGhpbmtyb2JvdC5qcGc=

Get a grip: Baxter demonstrates a simple manufacturing task at Rethink Robotics’ headquarters in Boston. Technology Review

Read more »


See more and subscribe to NextBigFuture at NextBigFuture.com



Source:

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.