Barrett Technology
Industry | Robotics |
---|---|
Founded | Cambridge, Massachusetts (1988 ) |
Founder | William Townsend |
Headquarters | 73 Chapel Street, Newton, Massachusetts, United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | William T. Townsend |
Products | WAM Robotic Arm, BarrettHand |
Website | Barrett.com |
Newton, Massachusetts, USA-based Barrett Technology was incorporated by William T. Townsend in 1990.[1] Barrett manufactures robotic arms and hands installed in 20 countries on 6 continents. Barrett is credited in The Guinness Book of World Records, Millennium Edition, as maker of the world’s “most advanced robotic arm.”[2] Its 7-axis robotic arm, named the WAM arm for Whole Arm Manipulation[3] is based on Puck electronics[4] and mechanical[5][6][7] drive technologies and designed to interact directly with people.[3][8] One application of an early version of the technology has been the arm manufactured and sold by MAKO Surgical Corp. which enables haptically-guided minimally-invasive knee surgery.[9]
The Puck powered BarrettHand BH8-series product is based on technology licensed from the University of Pennsylvania[10][11] and developed by Gill Pratt, Yoky Matsuoka, and William Townsend[12] into its present form.
Company history
Date | Event |
---|---|
1982–1984 | Townsend works in Massachusetts Institute of Technology's "motor" lab (LEES) where novel servomotor CMOS-FET configurations/algorithms are being developed |
1987 | Research team at MIT invents cable-differential drive, high-speed cable drive, and haptic (WAM) robotic arm |
1990 | Barrett Technology, Inc. incorporated |
1991 | Barrett markets brushless motor with integrated drive electronics |
1992 | US Patents[5][6] issued on cable-drive technologies |
1993 | Barrett builds first BarrettHand prototype, combining Barrett and UPenn technologies[10][11] |
1995 | US Patent[7] issued on a manual cable pretensioner |
1997 | Barrett secures exclusive worldwide control of the WAM cable-drive patents[5][6] from MIT |
1998 | Barrett signs exclusive license deal with MAKO Surgical Corp. for medical applications |
2001 | Burt Doo becomes Barrett's Operations Chief and invests in the Company |
2002 | Covert work begins on Puck development |
2004 | Barrett builds first puck-based prototype WAM for NASA-JSC |
2005 | MAKO Surgical Corp. wins U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to market a modified WAM for knee surgery |
2006 | MAKO begins shipping its version of the WAM for knee surgery under license from Barrett |
2007 | US Patent[12] awarded for Hand with integrated "Palm" camera |
2007 | Barrett begins work on next-generation Puck, code-named "P3" and expected to be released in 2012 |
2009 | US Patent[4] awarded on the Puck, other patents pending internationally |
Sources
Rooks, Brian, "The harmonious robot" (PDF), Industrial Robot
Smith, Julian (23 March 2007), "Can Robots Be Programmed to Learn from Their Own Experiences?", Scientific American
References
- ↑ Barrett Technology Inc. - Company Information
- ↑ Kynaston, Nic (2000). 'Guinness World Records, Millennium Edition'. London, UK: Guinness Media Inc. pp. 170–171. ISBN 1-892051-00-1.
- 1 2 US patent 5207114, J. Kenneth Salisbury, Jr., (Cambridge, MA) William T. Townsend (Somerville, MA) & William T. Townsend, "Compact cable transmission with cable differential", issued 1993-05-04, assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
- 1 2 US patent 7511443, William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA) Adam Crowell, (Beverly, MA) Gill Pratt, (Lexington, MA), Traveler Hauptman, (Watertown, MA); Adam Crowell & Gill Pratt et al., "Ultra-compact, high-performance motor controller and method of using same", issued 2009-03-31, assigned to Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
- 1 2 3 US patent 4903536, J. Kenneth Salisbury, Jr., (Cambridge, MA), William T. Townsend, (Somerville, MA), David M. DiPietro, (Webster, NY), Brian S. Eberman, (Rochester, MN); William T. Townsend & David M. DiPietro et al., "Compact cable transmission with cable differential", issued 1990-02-27, assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
- 1 2 3 US patent 5046375, J. Kenneth Salisbury, Jr., (Cambridge, MA) William T. Townsend, (Somerville, MA) David M. DiPietro, (Webster, NY) Brian S. Eberman, (Rochester, MN); William T. Townsend & David M. DiPietro et al., "Compact cable transmission with cable differential", issued 1991-09-10, assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
- 1 2 US patent 5388480, William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA), "Pretensioning mechanism for tension element drive systems", issued 1995-02-14, assigned to Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
- ↑ "The Science of Innovation". NSF Current (Mailing list). June 2009. Archived from the original on 31 October 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
- ↑ "Robotics Offer Newfound Surgical Capabilities". Embedded Technology. 17 April 2009. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
- 1 2 US patent 4957320, Nathan T. Ulrich, (Philadelphia, PA), "Methods and apparatus for mechanically intelligent grasping", issued 1990-09-18, assigned to Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1 2 US patent 5501498, Nathan T. Ulrich, (Philadelphia, PA), "Methods and apparatus for mechanically intelligent grasping", issued 1996-03-26, assigned to Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
- 1 2 US patent 7168748, William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA) Traveler Hauptman, (Cambridge, MA) Adam Crowell, (Beverly, MA) Brian Zenowich, (Boston, MA) John Lawson, (Petersboro, MA) Vitaliy Krutik, (Lynn, MA) Burt Doo, (Cambridge, MA); Traveler Hauptman & Adam Crowell et al., "Intelligent, self-contained robotic hand", issued 1996-03-26, assigned to Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)