Rethink Robotics displayed their new single-armed Sawyer robot at the RoboBusiness Conference and Expo in San Jose on Wednesday. It was Sawyer’s first public outing and the crowd of over 1,600 was paying attention.

Sawyer was running a machine tending application that required opening and closing a door and snapping pieces into place – tasks electronics manufacturers regularly need in their assembly process – and it performed perfectly. With the aid of its new Cognex camera, Sawyer is able to find what it’s looking for even when the piece isn’t exactly where it is supposed to be.

The New York Times recently put Rethink Robotics on its list of 50 technology companies likely to be valued at $1bn or more in years to come. (Also included were 3D Robotics and Airware.) Funders seem to agree, having provided $113.5m in seven rounds of funding.

During my interview with Rethink’s President and CEO Scott Eckert, at the RoboBusiness show, he outlined a rosy future for Sawyer, Rethink, and the company’s other robot, the  two-armed Baxter. Eckert confirmed that, up until recently, Baxter sales were mostly in the US and a good portion were to academia (Rethink only recently passed the 1,000 sales mark). But today, after a software update in June which enhanced Baxter’s speed and precision, its sales are increasing by 40%-70% each quarter. Sales of Sawyer are already backlogged.

It’s clear that Rethink has responded to customer feedback. The new Sawyer robot has a longer reach and more precision than Baxter. The latter has also been upgraded and is now three times faster and twice as precise as the original version. Certainly, Rethnk’s main competitor, Universal Robots, now has more to contend with.

This short video shows a General Electric division, GE Lighting, using the new Sawyer robot.

Robotiq, a Canadian provider of grippers, recently compared Rethink’s Sawyer and Universal’s UR3 robots. Here are the results:

At the end of January, Baxter left OSRF for a stint in Corvallis, Oregon where he will be used in a project that is investigating the use of teleoperated robots in the treatment of highly contagious diseases such as Ebola. He will be joining the Personal Robotics Group, part of Oregon State University’s growing Robotics Program, as part of their NSF-funded work to bring robots to the front lines of the current Ebola outbreak.

Health care workers are at the highest risk of exposure when working in close proximity to infected patients. Even the use of personal protective equipment still exposes workers to considerable risk of infection. These risks are due to both faulty practice and extreme conditions, especially in harsh locations such as West Africa where high temperatures and humidity present real operational challenges. The use of intuitive teleoperation interfaces will enable health care workers to remotely operate robots (such as Baxter) to perform significant portions of their jobs from a safe distance. Examples of potential tasks include patient monitoring, equipment moving, and contaminated material disposal. This will allow health care workers to provide needed care while maintaining the important patient-health care worker interaction, all while making their jobs safer and more tolerable.

Here is an example of a task that Baxter will help investigate, as performed by the PR2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jYWJm_UUoU

Fetch Robotics has just announced $3 million funding from Shasta Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures , which will be used to bring their new mobile manipulator robots to market in Q2 2015.Fetch Robotics is looking at the light industrial and logistics sectors, although researchers will also find the robots affordable. This comes hot on the heels of PAL’s February 4th launch of Tiago, also a mobile manipulator. And it seems very possible that Google will announce something similar very soon. After all, they have now had plenty of time (and experts) to finish what Redwood Robotics had started.

The innovator’s dilemma is at work here. The companies producing new mobile manipulators are not the big names in robotics. Companies like ABB, Kuka, Fanuc, etc. cannot really afford to produce a new style of robot that might damage their brand if it doesn’t perform to the same high standards. For example, ABB has been working on a collaborative manipulator for at least four years but in spite of unveiling the concept robot in 2011, ABB is only officially releasing YuMi for market on April 13 2015. This creates opportunity for faster-moving small companies. It looks like the technological conditions are ripe for the development of affordable mobile manipulators. Now, we’ll all get to see if the market is also ready.

Who’s who in the new light industrial manipulator sector?

These new robots are like the affordable compliant offspring of a PR2 and Motoman’s SDA series robots. Only these robots are safe for working together with humans and won’t break the bank. We will also be seeing combinations of robots where a base from one company, ie. Fetch or Adept is used with an arm from another, ie. Kuka or Universal.

Firstly, Fetch Robotics is not Unbounded Robotics, and the robots will be different (although Melonee Wise is now the CEO of Fetch Robotics and the core robot building team is the same). Unbounded Robotics ceased operation in 2014 just prior to marketing the UBR-1 (pictured). Where the UBR-1 was like a smaller version of Willow Garage’s PR2, the new robot(s) from Fetch Robotics will have separable base and arm(s). More information will be available in Q2 2015.

PAL’s Tiago is also modular, available as a base, as a base-and-arm package, and in other configurations. Tiago has a 7DOF arm capable of lifting a 3 Kg payload and a five-finger underactuated hand. Similar to the UBR-1, Tiago has a rising torso, USB and ethernet ports, and is also ROS compliant. The various Tiago combinations will cost between 30,000 and 60,000 euros.

Baxter from Rethink Robotics is not autonomously mobile but you can add a wheeled base to your Baxter and push it around. And Baxter is definitely affordable at $25,000 USD, although the various gripper options are extra.

YuMi from ABB is another stationery dual armed collaborative robot, developed for small parts assembly, especially in the consumer electronics sector. YuMi is part of a total small parts assembly solution that includes adaptable hands, flexible parts feeders, force control sensing and vision guidance.

Nextage from Kawada has similar specifications to Baxter and YuMi (although only 6DOF in the arms), but with an additional 1DOF in the waist. Nextage has been designed to be wheeled from place to place in an assembly line and has a compact configuration.

There’s also the Care-O-bot 3 from Fraunhoffer Institute, which is using industrial robotics components to create a service robot. Care-O-bot 3 has an attractive form factor for human interaction. Quite a difference from earlier versions, which were arms on mobile bases, suitable for tasks like welding assistance, not emptying garbage bins or serving coffee. (added 2/12/15 hat tip to Hizook)

Who knows for sure what Google is about to announce, although they have the IP and the experts to complete Redwood Robotics and Meka’s vision of an affordable lightweight compliant robot arm. They’re also well positioned to develop an autonomous mobile base.

And who knows how many other startups still in stealth will announce their light industrial/logistics manipulators this year? I’m betting that there’s at least one more.

As well as some robot arm/base combos being mix-n-match, the end effectors are also a whole other story. Perhaps 2015 will really be the year of the end effector. 

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Robot Startup Series #7: Interview with Soft Robotics’ Carl Vause

• Just launched: Fellow Robots’s OSHbot
• Amazon Picking Challenge
• Grasping objects in a way that is suitable for manipulation

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

UPDATED Jan 8: In an unannounced funding discovered by Boston Globe reporter Scott Kirsner, Rethink Robotics sold equity and received $26.6 million a few days before Christmas .

This funding brings Rethink Robotics’ total venture capital to $100.1 million according to CrunchBase. Highland Capital Partners, Sigma Prime Ventures, and CRV (formerly Charles River Ventures) participated in this round, along with new investors GE Ventures and Goldman Sachs. [According to a Rethink spokesman, Baxter robots are already deployed at multiple GE sites attesting to the rapidly changing manufacturing landscape and Rethink’s product adaptability.]

According to Sue Siegel, CEO GE Ventures, “Advanced manufacturing is an important area of focus for GE, both as an investor and a manufacturer. Rethink Robotics is paving the way for a new era of manufacturing in which robots work safely alongside humans, providing new opportunities for manufacturers to improve their production processes.”

“The business of manufacturing is changing more rapidly today than at any time in recent history,” said George Lee, co-chairman of the global technology, media and telecom group and chief information officer for the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs.   “Smart, collaborative robotics have proven to be a significant and disruptive technology.  With a differentiated solution set, an innovative software platform and a forward-thinking product roadmap, Rethink Robotics is well positioned to lead this industry for many years to come.”

Just a year ago Rethink had a 23% layoff after receiving an $11.5 million equity round of funding in November, 2013. Since that time much has happened to improve the product and direction of the company. Baxter, Rethink’s 2-armed robot, got a boost in precision and speed in a major software upgrade at the end of the summer and subsequent sales have shown that this was what was holding up sales to factories and shops.

Rethink, is, at this time, a privately-held company, and doesn’t report its financial information. However it is thought that in the two years to date since they have been manufacturing and shipping product, only 800 Baxters have been sold. If all 800 units sold for $25k, that’s an indication of why Rethink would need this additional funding to sustain its operations and 70+ employes until they hit a profitable (or at least break-even) run rate.

In a recent blog posting regarding what Rethink Robotics’ CTO and Chairman of the Board Rodney Brooks sees in store for 2015, he says that:

• We will begin to see large-scale deployment of collaborative and intelligent robots in manufacturing.
• This will be a breakout year for robotics research.
• It’s been exciting to watch Baxter become the gold standard of human-robot interaction, and even more exciting to see some of the tremendous work talented students and engineers are doing with our robot. And much of their work has nothing to do with improving manufacturing, but with exploring the use of robots in healthcare, elder care, and other endeavors that are critical to the future of our society.
• Emerging technology will be designed to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Rethink Robotics downsizing: 23% laid off
• Rethink Robotics introduces Baxter Research Robot
• Robots Podcast: Rethink Robotics
• Academic and industry collaboration (Part 1): Interview with Rodney Brooks
•  Startup Series #5: Rodney Brooks, Steve Cousins & Pioneers Festival
• Rodney Brooks: Atificial intelligence is a tool, not a threat

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

A sad day at Rethink Robotics. 21 jobs have been cut in Rethink’s first layoff.

Although Rethink Robotics is downsizing, their action is not indicative of the robotics industry, which is booming and hiring.

The Boston Globe reported that Rethink Robotics, maker of the $22,000 Baxter 2-armed robot, has cut 21 jobs from their staff of approximately 90.

In the Boston Globe article Rethink CEO Scott Eckert said:

The layoffs are the result of Rethink deciding to focus on the market segments that have been most receptive to Baxter since its launch: plastics manufacturing, consumer goods packaging, warehousing and logistics. Our volume trends are encouraging, our customer pipeline is encouraging, and we expect to see significant growth in 2014, however we will be able to achieve that in a more focused manner with fewer resources.

Since 2005, Rethink Robotics (previously named Heartland Robotics) has taken in $73.5 million from Boston-based VCs and Bezos Expeditions (the personal investment fund of Jeff Bezos), the most recent $11.5 million in November, 2013 (source: CrunchBase).

Rethink Robotics’ Rodney Brooks.

Rethink Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Rodney Brooks has been an energetic and eloquent spokesman for building and selling an affordable, safe and easy to train plug and play robot to help US manufacturers — particularly smaller shops and factories. With such a robot, Brooks assured, these businesses could increase productivity and keep jobs from migrating offshore. The two-armed Baxter robot is his vision. Thus it comes as a big surprise that Rethink needs to retrench their operations and cut 23+% of their staff to focus on the few industry sectors in which they have deployed robots.

Brooks has been right on the mark in describing the needs of small and medium-sized manufacturers. He’s defined the marketplace, defined their needs, and gotten people to accept that an easy-to-train robot can help improve productivity, be safe to work alongside and have affordable metrics. He’s even built and funded a company that ramped up to be able to produce 1,000 of these robots a year. But the robot itself doesn’t measure up to those needs at present. It’s been a work in progress — a miraculous achievement but one not fully ready for factory operations. Perhaps this highly publicized ramping up has clouded the focus on improving the product to live up to their promise (and the sizzle that Brooks has been selling).

Baxter’s main competitor has many of the same positive characteristics as Baxter: relatively low cost, it’s safe to work alongside humans, it’s plug and play, and training is relatively easy. Universal Robot’s UR line of robots cost a bit more and only have one arm. However, they work much faster, with more precision, can carry a heavier load and are engineered to have a longer work life.

Universal Robots has sold 2,500+ robots in 50+ countries through more than 200 distributors in the last five years. The Danish robot manufacturer added 50 people in 2013, a 100% increase in the company staff currently totaling 97 worldwide, and is hiring for 2014. They are ramping up to move into larger facilities with a much greater manufacturing capability.

Ed Mullen, the company’s National Sales Manager in North America attributes the growth of Universal Robots to the quality and capability of the robots the company has been able to create. “They meet the expectations of SMEs: a collaborative, user-friendly robot presenting a plug&play automation solution for a wide range of industries. Not only have we been able to penetrate large accounts — supplying the first collaborative robots to BMW and VW — we’ve also been able to get our robots on the shop floors of many small and medium sized businesses that never thought they’d be able to employ a robot due to cost and complexity.”

With financial news reporting big robotic acquisitions by Stryker ($1.5 billion for MAKO Surgical Robotics), Apple ($350 million for PrimeSense) and Google which has set up a robotics division and seeded it with seven start-ups and an eighth acquisition announced today – Boston Dynamics (of Big Dog, Cheetah and ATLAS fame) – it seems clear that the layoff at Rethink is not indicative of the robotics industry in general. In fact, there’s a hiring boom searching for robotics talent country-wide.

How can it be that such a prominent headliner as Rethink Robotics is regrouping? Four likely answers: (1) they were trying to do too much with too many people; (2) they were rushed to market by their VC investors; (3) they provided a product (the Baxter robot) that offered too much but didn’t do it too well; and (4) they haven’t yet finished the development of their product so that it delivers what the buyers want and need: a fast, safe, flexible, cheap and easy-to-train co-robot.

Small and medium shops and factories (SMEs) are an untapped marketplace for robotics but direly in need of automation to remain competitive in this global economy. Two new start up companies: Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots have entered that marketplace. Both companies have U.S. sales in the hundreds of units; Universal has a head start internationally and has sold about 3,000 to-date, but Rethink is way ahead in the US. Both have similar 60-100/mo manufacturing run rates – so the future looks bright for selling flexible, lightweight, low-cost robots that are easily programmed, safe for humans to work alongside, don’t require a caged or roped off area, and perform at affordable metrics.

The importance of this new robotic capability and its effect on jobs was the subject of a CBS News piece on October 5. A few of the quotes from that newscast:

• U.S. productivity and efficiency are three times greater than China.
• Baxter’s effective cost is $3 per hour.
• 3-5 million new jobs will happen this decade due to the deployment of Baxter and other co-robots.

Boston-based Rethink Robotics – the maker of the low-cost two-armed Baxter robot shown above on the left – has already begun to sell to small and medium-sized U.S. businesses (SMEs) as well as schools and colleges. They recently announced beginning to sell to European academic institutions.

Danish-based Universal Robots has started to benefit from sales from their new distributor network in the U.S. supplementing their growing European, Asian and International distributor networks and robot sales.

Each company has provided a video profiling how their client companies are using and benefitting from the use of their respective robots. Although these videos are public relations puff pieces, they are also an information resource describing the needs smaller companies have and the benefits offered by robotics.

UNIVERSAL ROBOTS

Of the two companies, for the present time, Universal Robots UR robots are better able to handle industrial tasks than Baxter robots. Universal’s UR5 and UR10 robots can handle 5 and 10 kilos respectively and have sufficient torque to pull open doors and operate hand tools. They also run faster.

Universal Robots got lots of publicity last month when it became known that a UR robot was working at a VW diesel engine production plant in Germany. It was the first publicly-known instance of a robot working alongside a human in an auto factory. In that example, the robot carefully picks up delicate glow plugs and places them into hard-to-reach drill holes alongside a human who then insulates the cylinder head. The robot acts as an assistant and enables the worker to carry out their activities in an upright, healthy posture, unlike previous methods. This week MIT Technology Review showed another Universal robot, this time at a BMW factory in South Carolina, helping workers perform door assembly by doing the strenuous task of applying door sealant thereby freeing human workers to do the less physical tasks.

In the following video, a 72-person short-run metal products maker displays two applications for their new UR robot: CNC machine tending and loading and unloading a metal bender.

[In a recent case study, machine-loaded costs for a part came to $0.97/part in the U.S. and $0.76/part in China. When a robot was used for machine tending and loading, the total cost shifted to $0.73/part in the U.S. versus $0.76/part in China (including offshore costs like duties and transportation fees). In the study, using the robot boosted efficiency. The machine utilization under manual loading was 82%, when you account for shift changes and breaks. When robots did the tending and loading, the efficiency figure approached 99%. Source: PlasticsToday and Fanuc Robotics.]

RETHINK ROBOTICS

Almost all of the big industrial robot makers have or are working on lightweight and human-friendly arms, but none are offering them at low cost, or with user-friendly training, or the plug and play and safety features. There are other robot startups in the SME marketplace – and on the horizon – but none are as far along in their development and low cost as Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots.

Rethink Robotics’ Baxter

Rethink Robotics‘ new Baxter robot is getting a software upgrade. Big deal? Actually, it is. When Rethink Robotics launched Baxter late in 2012, it was obvious that Baxter needed some improvements. Rodney Brooks promised those improvements incrementally over the next few months and year. Brooks’ vision was to have a hardware platform frequently enhanced with new software and capabilities – and it is happening as promised and on schedule.

Rethink recently launched an academic version of Baxter with a Software Development Kit (SDK) enabling users to train the robot and share their programs with other Baxter owners. Although the SDK academic version is different than the production model, after a while, the concept of an open SDK and an Apple-like app store will be enabled across Rethink’s whole product line.

Just the other day Rethink upgraded their operating system to V1.1 to make it easier to integrate existing factory machine synchronization, I/O and task sequencing and ordering systems into Baxter’s repertoire of programs – a very neat and necessary feature. Now Baxter can integrate and connect with up to 9 digital ports to existing automation systems through signaling. This new update also enables users to coordinate actions across Baxter’s two arms.

Baxters are being produced at a pace for sales of 500+ units in 2013.

Universal Robots UR5 and UR10 Robots

Danish Universal Robots (UR) has quickly built an extensive North American distributor network of 16 experienced robot integrator/distributors.

One of those new distributors, Scott Hendrickson, CEO of Olympus Controls, said: “The quality of new leads has been off the charts. Most of our existing clients are Fortune 500 companies, but now we’re able to better service small business owners on Main Street as well,” he says, attributing the growth to the cost and ease of use of the UR robot. “In typical robot solutions, you multiply the robot cost by three or more to get the end price due to safety guarding and expensive programming. None of this is necessary with the new Universal Robots.” Hendrickson went on to say: “We believe these new robots will soon cross the chasm between early adopters and mainstream users.”

“A key selling point of our robots is that they are continuously upgraded”, said UR Sales Manager Kristian Hulgard. “Once purchased, our users can expect a steady stream of software upgrades giving them access to all the new features on the latest robots to leave the factory. This makes their investment future-proof.”

UR is building 100+ robots a month of which approximately 25-30% are for customers in the U.S.

Both UR and Rethink are finding price acceptability and each have provided case studies of how their robots are being utilized.

Features Comparison

A Couple of Examples of How These Robots Are Being Used

At a Johnson & Johnson factory in Greece, a UR5 is used on a production line where it performs repetitive pick and place tasks as a link between two parts of a production line.

The robot takes bottles of cream from one production line, and places them onto the packaging line. Flexibility is the key requirement because there are several different types of cream containers coming down the line, each positioned differently.

The Greek integrator/distributor, InnoPro Technologies, which sold and installed the robot, said that J&J engineers were 100% satisfied and have even given the robot a name.

A Baxter robot has been deployed at the Rodon Group, a Hatfield, PA injection molder and is among the first plastics processors to deploy a Baxter robot. It is being used for repetitive tasks like picking up parts off a conveyor and placing them into boxes or onto a nearby packaging line.

The robot is being “trained” by the very people it is assisting. Because Baxter is oblivious to heat or noise, it can take on those “hard to fill.”

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Rethink Robotics is downsizing
• Unbounded Robotics launch affordable, all-purpose UBR-1
• Co-robots really ARE a BIG thing
• Factory-in-a-Day: EU FP7 invests €7.9M to make robotics affordable for SMEs

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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.”

The most pressing problem to consider is the design of more robust, flexible, and
affordable grippers for robots. This is a major limitation for more widespread
use of robots in many different applications. Parallel pneumatic grippers are
affordable, but the more dextrous systems are much too expensive.

Read more answers →

Speaking at CMU Robotics Institute as part of their RI Seminar Series, Rodney Brooks, Founder, Chairman, and CTO of Rethink Robotics (originally Heartland Robotics), talked about their new Baxter robot, what drove its design, and the circumstances surrounding the formation of the company. His talk is followed by about fifteen minutes of Q&A.

Link to audio file (34:39)

Link to transcript

In today’s episode we speak with Rodney Brooks at the offices of Rethink Robotics about their first product Baxter, his ambition to revolutionize manufacturing and latest tips for young entrepreneurs.

Rodney Brooks
Rodney Brooks built his career as Professor in robotics and former Director (1997 – 2007) of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and then the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). In the 1980s, he revolutionized the field of robotics by introducing the idea that the world is its own best model, and that to be robust, robots should react to their environment (behavior-based robotics) rather than rely on complex models of the world. From this research in behavior-based robotics, Brooks then studied human-robot interactions with former graduate students, now well known researchers, such as Cynthia Breazeal and Maja Mataric. He is also a Founder, former Board Member (1990 – 2011) and former CTO (1990 – 2008) of iRobot.

In 2008, Brooks founded Rethink Robotics, a Boston-based company aimed at revolutionizing manufacturing and reducing offshoring by making low-cost robots that can easily be taught to help with different tasks on the work-floor by everyday employees. Their first product “Baxter” has five cameras and two arms, each with 7 degrees of freedom, a payload of 5 kg and equipped with interchangeable manipulators.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjPFqkFyrOY

In this interview, Brooks tells us about his vision for manufacturing and the design decisions that were taken to address challenges such as vision, manipulation, and human-robot interactions. Businesses will need to “rethink” their idea of automation before embracing adaptable, compliant and human-like robots rather than typical assembly-line super-performers.

Links:

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• Rethink Robotics
• Rodney Brooks

Many reporters, including myself, saw Baxter at Rethink’s headquarters in Boston in the past two months but were embargoed from writing about it until today, the launch date.

Looking at the stories – as they appear all over the web and in news print, three stand out, in my opinion, at the head of the class:

1. the Rethink Robotics press release
2. the NY Times article and video by John Markoff
3. and the in-depth story in Spectrum by Ackerman and Guizzo

Markoff’s story uses everyday language and is directed toward a wide audience – the kind of multi-layered audience, multi-interests audience unique to The NY Times; the Spectrum article is for engineers and roboticists.

As an aside, Markoff’s article makes me ever more aware of the difference between a blogger/writer and a paid reporter from a reputable news source. John’s article made me wish I could write like him. I saw what he saw, got the same demo, played with the machine similarly, heard the same details. But I came away disappointed.

• John saw, as I did, that both arms don’t work together. He wrote that they will in the next version. I couldn’t imagine them bringing the product out without the arms working together (although they are aware of each other’s location and can avoid hitting itself).
• John saw, as I did, that it was big but he just described it as a 9′ span that, with the stand, brings Baxter eye-level with a standing worker. I saw it as big and clunky.
• John heard, as I did, that the price was $22,000 yet Brooks had been touting an affordable cost of less than $15,000 for a long time and cited polls that said that the price point for new shop tools was $15,000 or less. John just wrote the facts and let it go at that.
• We both saw that the grasping mechanism was a two-fingered plastic device and heard that, in the future, third party mechanisms could be quickly retooled to enable Baxter to do different tasks. I thought this was an awkward solution and found that Baxter could only lift 5 pounds and didn’t have enough torque to push/screw in a screw which, in my opinion, would be a necessary task for any shop assistant. John just showed what it could do with it’s two fingers.
• John described the need of small shops to augment their workers with robots which can do the dull, repetitive parts of their daily work much easier, thereby freeing up the worker to do higher-level tasks. But he didn’t indicate that this version of Baxter is far away from offering that capability. Nor did he talk about other promises and expectations missing from this launch, namely an app store where Baxter’s training can be transferred to other places where other Baxters are installed.
• We both saw that Baxter’s speed was slow and its precision not too precise but John just reported what he saw; I wondered how long it would take to speed up the processing and enhance the mechanisms to be more precise.

I could go on with the comparisons but, bottom line, John Markoff deserves to work for the NY Times because he reports things as they are. Opinion and spin are left to bloggers and PR people.

Markoff only writes a robotics story every month or so; Ackerman and Guizzo write every week or so. But every day there are hundreds of stories that need sifting to see whether they fall into News or Views and if News, whether the article is applicable for our readers as they do as we do: track the business of robotics.

I wrote this meandering message because of a quote I think appropriate about Baxter: George Carlin, the late comedian said: “Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.”

Other stories about Baxter and Rethink Robotics from reliable sources:

• Bloomberg Businessweek: Smarter Robots, With No Pesky Uprisings
• Technology Review: Meet the Other Robots Set to Invade Manufacturing
• The Wall Street Journal: Baxter Robot Heads to Work
• PC Magazine: Meet Baxter the Robot, Your Potential New Co-Worker
• Forbes: Manufacturing Gets A Makeover With Baxter
• Popular Mechanics: It’s Time To Welcome Our Robot Underlings, Starting With Baxter
• The Engineer: Rethink Robotics Unveils Humanoid Factory Robot