A Robot Rethought to Appeal to Manufacturers

In a workshop at the Boston headquarters of Rethink Robotics, engineers are tending to a troop of eight bright red robots called Baxter. Each robot has a humanoid upper torso and a pair of friendly blue eyes on a small screen that track the robots' two arms as the engineers move them. Off to the side of the room, senior product manager Brian Benoit is assembling a new robot called Sawyer--Baxter's little brother. It has just one arm and is also smaller, faster, and more precise than Baxter. If things go as the company hopes, this new robot will find work alongside humans on many manufacturing production lines.