Guinness Book of World Records 2000 Puts Barrett's WAM Arm on Top
World's
Most Advanced Robotic Arm!
CAMBRIDGE,
MASS. – January 2000 – Guinness
Book of World Records Millennium
Edition recognizes Barrett Technology's WAM Arm as the World's "Most
Advanced Robotic Arm."
"This
was a nice surprise for us. A good way to start off the New Year!" says
Barrett Founder and CEO, Bill Townsend. "It's
not every day that we get such an unequivocal endorsement from a source as
respected as The
Guinness Book."
Indeed,
Barrett's uniquely human-friendly robots are based on extraordinarily advanced
technology that
enables
them to feel as well as move. Fifteen
years ago, Townsend recognized that for robots to break from
niche
automation tasks, core technologies would have to be rebuilt from the ground up
so that the robots
could
collaborate hand-in-hand with everyday people.
Townsend's
work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Lab
lead to new types of servo-drive mechanisms that enable people to teach robots
directly with a feather touch. The
robot
simultaneously
creates geometrically precise virtual surfaces, funnels, and paths in space that
the user selects to slide along. But
the technology depends on super-powerful computers and communications, the kind
that was available at the AI Lab and almost nowhere else.
"That was a real show-stopper; preventing us from addressing
mainstream commercial applications," according to Townsend.
"So we have been quietly perfecting the technology with support from
NASA, DoD, and NSF while we wait for the power of
mainstream
PCs and the Internet to catch up – and it's close – within a couple
years."
Barrett
may not yet be in the mainstream, but its impressive customer list includes
manufacturing R&D
centers
worldwide, from Ford, Honda, Yamaha, and MITI, to the US and Japanese space
programs, to
robotics
and haptic research at top universities. Barrett
has also begun sublicensing its technology in fields
as
varied as haptic sensing, surgery, and physical rehabilitation which are being
propelled by the Internet
communications revolution and fast, affordable PCs.
Barrett Technology, 139 Main Street, Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02142. Tel: 617-252-9000 ; Fax: 617-252-9021.