arms, a face screen, and an array of sensors that allow it to work side-by-side with workers performing a variety of tasks. “Baxter isn’t going to replace a traditional heavy weight-lifting robot that does high-precision movements at super speed,” said Mitch Rosenberg, vice president-product management and marketing.
Baxter can work side-by-side with humans automating light-duty repetitive tasks using two arms, vision sensors and cameras, and safety built in.
The next generation of robots has a human-friendly feel to it. Baxter, the robot from Rethink Robotics (Boston), has two
“This robot is a major breakthrough that can democratize automation in manufacturing. Baxter has two arms with a typi- cal payload limit of 5 lb [2.3 kg] per arm. Baxter is designed to automate processes that are among the most mundane and boring jobs in a facility. Typical ones include repetitive motion for loading and unloading conveyors, loading scales with parts, or inserting gaskets into metal housings. In the near term, we’ll be adding software to Baxter that makes it possible to do machine tending: putting parts into a machine, pushing the button, unloading parts, and putting it on a conveyor. In the future, Baxter could also be trained to do fi nishing opera- tions like grinding and polishing a part,” Rosenberg said.
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