Baxter Robot Heads to Work

Baxter Robot Heads to Work

Rethink Robotics Inc. introduced Tuesday a low-cost—and cute—robot named Baxter that can do such factory chores as picking parts off a conveyor belt, so long as they don’t weigh more than five to 10 pounds.

The two-armed robot has a computer-screen face with animated eyes, stands at about 3 feet, and is priced at $22,000. It is designed to do such tasks as loading and unloading, sorting and tending of other machinery, jobs typically done by people.

Most industrial robots are larger, one-armed machines whose tasks include lifting heavy objects, cutting metal or welding. Those machines typically cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Boston-based Rethink, founded in 2008, said Baxter eliminates the need to hire specialist technicians. Rodney Brooks, chairman of Rethink, said most workers would be able to learn to operate Baxter within half an hour. Rethink touts the robot as appealing for small and midsize manufacturers that previously haven’t been able to afford robots and lacked the expertise to program them.

Baxter comes preprogrammed to do certain basic tasks, such as sorting objects. Buyers then need to adjust it to meet their precise needs, such as grasping certain shapes and moving objects in certain directions. That can be done without additional programming. If companies want Baxter to go through more complicated motions, they will be able to do additional programming for it.