Rethink Robotics has announced the availability of a bundle, called the Baxter Research Robot, which includes their Baxter robot and a Software Development Kit, for US$22,000.
While there may be non-obvious differences, the robot itself appears to be identical to the Baxter Robot Rethink introduced last year. The SDK requires Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and ROS Electric.
Rethink states “The Baxter Research Robot is recommended by the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) as a research platform suitable for funding proposals.”