Robotics Pioneer Reaches 30 In 2018

Thanks to great customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, Barrett reaches an important milestone this year—turning 30 years old—and of course, we are just warming up. 

At our start, Barrett's WAM arm became the first-ever human-interactive robot. Ten years later MAKO licensed the WAM to introduce the first application of haptics and force reflection in surgery. The following year, Barrett licensed its gearless drive technology to haptics pioneer SensAble Technology. In 2004, Barrett introduced the Puck, which became the beginning of the end to massive controller cabinets. A couple years ago the original Puck was followed by a commercial version called "P3" for third-generation Puck. This year Barrett is launching its first FDA-compliant medical product, BURT-Medical for widespread clinical use in neurorehabilitation. 

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Barrett continues to be the only supplier of gearless drives, which support naturally silent and smooth motions with human-like grace. Other robot makers rely on some form of gear drive, most commonly in the form of harmonic drives, which limits backdrivability, and then compromise performance in the attempt to make these drives behave like gearless drives. Barrett's drive elegance allows it to give users unparalleled access to the robot's internal workings, enabling control right down to the motor currents if desired.

A year-by-year history of Barrett can be found here