Rethink Robotics · Industrial · 2012
Rethink Robotics' Baxter (2012) was a landmark in collaborative robotics — the robot that popularised the idea of a fenceless, teach-by-demonstration arm that ordinary factory workers could program by grabbing and moving it. Designed by iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks, it has a humanoid form: two 7-DOF arms (2.2 kg payload, 1,210 mm reach), a torso, and an animated LCD face that signals intent. Its defining technology is the Series Elastic Actuator — a spring at every joint that both senses force and physically absorbs impact, letting it work safely alongside people without cages under ISO 10218, and back-drive easily when pushed. It runs Intera on ROS from a PC in its chest, with cameras and sensors in its head and hands. The Research Robot variant (added head camera, sonar, IR, and an open SDK) became a fixture in university labs worldwide and seeded a generation of manipulation research. Priced around US$25,000, Baxter is discontinued (Rethink ceased operations in 2018, the brand later acquired), but its influence on cobot design endures. NOTE: Rethink published limited formal spec tables; figures here are from Rethink materials and the Baxter Research Robot documentation.
Price level: ★★☆☆☆
View full interactive profile, comparisons & videos →| Category | Industrial |
| Sub-type | Dual-Arm Collaborative Robot |
| Status | Discontinued |
| Year | 2012 |
| Origin | USA |
| Announced | 2012 |
| Released | 2012 |
| Weight | 75 kg |
| Degrees of freedom | 14 |
| Payload | 2.2 kg |
| Reach | 1210 mm |
| Camera | Head camera + cameras in each hand; sonar head sensors; IR hand ranging (Research Robot model) |
| Operating system | Intera (Rethink) on ROS |
| Actuator type | Series Elastic Actuators (SEA) — spring at every joint absorbs impact & enables back-drive |
| Use cases | Packaging, Material handling, Machine tending, Line loading, Academic research (Research Robot) |
| Made in | USA (Boston, MA) |