Rethinking Collaboration: Baxter’s New Adaptive Positioning System
Rethink Robotics released Intera 3.1, a software update for its Baxter collaborative manufacturing robot that adds a robot positioning system feature to allow Baxter to manage and adapt to changing, real-world environments.
With the update Baxter can now switch between tasks and content with plant floor variations using environmental markers or landmarks without retraining for each specific task. When a location changes slightly, Baxter will mark the new location and adjust its movements accordingly.
“Manufacturing robots have always been caged, not only to protect the workers around them from harm, but also to protect their precisely configured environments from being disrupted by those same workers,” says Rethink Robotics CEO Scott Eckert. “With Baxter, we brought the manufacturing robot out of its cage by making it safe enough to work next to people; and now, we’ve made it safe for the robot to work effectively in real-world conditions as well by allowing it to adapt to everyday variations that people naturally produce.”
Baxter can remember up to 20 landmarks and is able to adjust to changes of up to +/-50mm horizontally and within 10 degrees of rotation in either direction.
Michigan-based Praxis Packaging Solutions is an early adopter of the new software. With 24 hour a day packaging demands and rapid reconfiguration of production lines, adaptability is key in integrating its robotic solution.
“We need our people and our automation to effectively work in a semi-structured, and sometimes variable, manufacturing environment,” says Chris Hager, information technology manager at Praxis. “Rethink’s Baxter robot, particularly with the new robot positioning system, provides a solution that can finally adjust to the changing conditions of our work cells.”
