Sep 17 2013
Rethink Robotics today announced the Baxter Research Robot, a revolutionary humanoid robot with two arms powered by a Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows researchers to create a wide array of custom applications for robots, is now in use at universities across the United States.
The Baxter Research Robot has been adopted at many of the leading engineering schools across the U.S., including Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where students and faculty are developing unique applications and carrying out fundamental research in robotics.
The Baxter Research Robot has a vibrant and growing community of users actively sharing ideas in the Rethink Robotics online user forum. The MIT CSAIL lab is using one of their Baxter Research Robots to assist with navigation and mapping research. Baxter is used to scan objects in the environment in a consistent and reproducible way, leading to the development of 3D models for items the robot can then interact with. At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Baxter Research Robot is being used for research on understanding novel grippers, studying human-robot interaction and incorporating touch sensing. Cornell is working to give Baxter the ability to grasp novel objects, specifically objects that are viewed for the first time through the robot's camera. Using deep learning algorithms, the Baxter Research Robot is now able to predict the gripper configuration for grasping based on the raw image data for an object.
"At Cornell, we chose to add the Baxter Research Robot to our lab not only because it is safe and cost-effective, but also because it presents endless possibilities for our students to create new applications," said Ashutosh Saxena, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Cornell. "With the SDK running on the global Robot Operating System standard, students are able to share innovations and build on each other's work, making the Baxter Research Robot well-suited for an educational environment."
The Baxter Research Robot Gets Its European Visa
Due to growing demand, the Baxter Research Robot is also now available to academic and corporate researchers in the European Union through Rethink Robotics official Distribution Partners Active Robots and Generation Robots. Active Robots, a leading supplier and manufacturer of robotics and electronics, will be the distributor for the United Kingdom and Ireland. HumaRobotics, the R&D service group of Generation Robots, will be the distributor for France. Both distributors will also cover additional portions of continental Europe.
"We have rapidly moved beyond the early adopter phase as more universities across the country, and now Europe, join the Baxter Research Robot's robust user community," said Scott Eckert, president and CEO of Rethink Robotics. "The platform's success relies on an active and varied user base to foster innovation. We're seeing that scale develop in the U.S. and can't wait to add European researchers to our open approach to robotics application development."