Rethink's Robots Get Massive Software Upgrade, Rodney Brooks "So Excited"

Rethink Robotics is taking the wraps off a massive project that the company has been working on for two years. "It's been a big part of our development that the world hasn't seen," says Rethink founder and CTO Rodney Brooks. "I've been so excited about this because I know what it can do." A little over a year ago, Rethink started shipping Sawyer, a collaborative robot designed to be faster, stronger, and more precise than the company's first cobot, Baxter, which didn't "sell like hotcakes," as Brooks had expected. But developing a brand-new robot was just part of Rethink's post-Baxter plans: Another goal was completely rebuilding its software platform, called Intera, which is responsible for controlling all of Sawyer's functions as well as allowing users to program the robot.