BAXTER-THE BLUE COLLAR ROBOT

Baxter is an industrial robot built by Rethink Robotics, a start-up company founded by Rodney Brooks. It was introduced in September 2012. Baxter is a 3-foot tall (without pedestal; 5'10" - 6'3" with pedestal), two-armed robot with an animated face. It weights 165 lbs without the pedestal and 306 pounds with the pedestal.Baxter exhibits behavior based ‘common sense,’ capable of sensing and adapting to its task and its environment. It requires no complex programming or costly integration and with its uniquely low price point featuring an unprecedented $22,000 as base price. It also provides a compelling alternative to low-cost off shoring for manufacturers of all sizes which makes it versatile for a range of repetitive tasks and requires no safety cages.

Functions of work

• Transportation: Baxter can be trained to transport parts from one designed location to another. Also, it could load and unload parts from moving conveyors.
• Assembling: Baxter can be easily taught to pack a bag or box.  It could align and assemble parts and placed them into containers.
• Machine operation: Baxter could also be trained to implement operational control sequences on other machine.
• Testing and Sorting: Baxter can test parts for features like weight, shape and so on depends on the programming training.