“Man works for the machine” or, “Machine works for the man” – which one holds true? In the field of robotics, both are correct. With the advent of Baxter Research Robot this interrelationship has got a new dimension altogether.
Until now, with traditional industrial robots, roboticists had their limitations in the use of technology. The quest for the researchers and the robotics community was to develop robots with humanoid features that can bring automation in industrial applications. The aim was to apply innovation and programming skills at their best and deliver never-seen applications of industrial robots. The results came out as the revolutionary new generation factory robot – Baxter Research Robot that has a human-friendly face and a human intelligence too.
The Baxter Research Robot is versatile; easy to use; easy to program and has been designed with much precision. It is exclusive to corporate research and development departments, academics and healthcare sectors. Baxter Research is entirely a new type of robot that can collaborate with human beings and perform an array of repetitive tasks. It is also safe, affordable and inherits the manufacturing specialty of Rethink Robotics.
We will now dig deeper into the capabilities of Baxter Research Robot.
Intelligent applications
The research robot has built-in capability to collaborate with human functions. It can plan, customise, control and perceive all kinds of applications. The robot can also be applied to robotics experimentation, computer science curriculum and cognitive sciences.
Safe Operation
This revolutionary robot does not require you to take an additional protection. It can easily be operated in public.
Strong Manufacturing Background
Baxter has two versions – the Manufacturing version and the Research version. Baxter Research version has got all the merits of the original Baxter robot that was used by manufacturers. It is blessed with a stable, safe and flexible hardware platform.
Advanced Technical Specifications
The research robot comes with an array of components that adds to its robust functionalities.
The two arms having 7 degrees of freedom, three cameras, 360 degree sonar, force sensing, force control and pedestal footprint make the perfect combination. The machine can withstand a temperature of 0 to 40 degrees. The end effectors have exchangeable cups which makes it more flexible in use. The parallel grippers have interchangeable fingers and user-adjustable fingertips for ease of operation.
Suitable for Research Labs
The robot with its multiple features and custom applications fits ideal to any industrial research and development activities, academics and research laboratories. It is also useful to teachers and researchers. Using Robots Operating System (ROS) they can develop their own custom applications and share their programs through ROS community.
Extended Applications
Baxter Research Robot does not have the manufacturing software installed. Instead, it runs the Software Development Kit (SDK). This SDK layer is an open source which allows researchers to use their own custom applications; add new tasks and capabilities through software upgrade.
Easy Control
The robot runs on ROS which enables roboticists around the world to use standard software framework. It also applies Unified Robot Description Format (URDF) so that research groups can collaborate with each other real-time.
Easy Manipulation
Baxter Research Robot comes with two in-built grippers – electrical parallel gripper and vacuum pump gripper. However, one can buy more grippers if required. A technical documentation on how to manipulate vacuum pump gripper can also be useful.
Price affordability
The research robot shows the base price of $25,000 MSRP in the US. In Europe, it is available at a price as low as £19,000.00. This makes it quite affordable as buyers can enjoy a number of unprecedented features at an exclusive cost.
To summarise, the Baxter Research Robot implies cutting edge technology in the field of industrial robotics. The platform is so intelligently designed and creatively applied to academics (social sciences, computer science), corporate R&D and healthcare segment that it has been considered as a recommended project for funding proposals through the National Robotics Initiative.
Baxter Research Robot undoubtedly sets us one step ahead in the journey of human-robot collaboration. Let’s nurture this habit for everyone’s benefits.
