Leading the Cutting Edge of Robotics Since 1988
Barrett spun out of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (now CSAIL) where Barrett’s founder, Bill Townsend, earned his PhD creating the world’s first human-interactive robot with funding from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. With seed investment from Julianne Barrett and grants from NASA, NSF, NIH, DOE, and DARPA, Barrett developed its groundbreaking Puck® motor technology and highly-backdriveable gearless drives that power its world-class robots, including the WAM® arm, BarrettHand™, and Burt®. Burt®, for example, is an FDA-Registered, ISO13485-Certified medical device that promotes brain plasticity during recovery from stroke, with over 300 systems sold to hospitals worldwide.
The Puck® motor controller is a good example of what makes Barrett’s robots so special. Motor controllers are required to power every axis of virtually every robot made today. The Puck® is the world’s most compact motor controller by a factor of 10. The smallest Puck® supplies 250-watts peak, yet weighs a mere 2.0 grams. Incredibly, the motor-encoder function is included within that 2.0 grams. The Puck® also leverages recent innovation enabling extraordinarily smooth and precise torques and motion trajectories that are required specifically for robots intended for physically safe interaction with people, such as Burt®. Please explore further and allow Barrett to help you attain your goals.
The state of the art Burt® robot we make today is built on our WAM® arm technology, shown here in a video from 2015!
Here’s a play-by-play of Barrett’s journey throughout the years:
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1987
Bill Townsend creates first-ever human-interactive robot
Bill Townsend creates first-ever human-interactive robot, dubbed WAM®, the acronym for Whole-Arm Manipulation, at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (now CSAIL), in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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1988
Townsend launches Barrett
Bill Townsend is awarded a PhD from MIT and launches Barrett Technology with financing from Barrett Communications, Inc.
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1990
Barrett comercializes the WAM® arm
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1993
Barrett launches the first-generation BarrettHand™ in collaboration with NASA's Johnson Space Center
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1998
MAKO Surgical licenses WAM®
MAKO Surgical licenses Barrett’s flagship WAM® robot arm for its RIO® surgical robot. (MAKO subsequently purchased by Stryker for $1.6B based in the WAM-enabled RIO robot.)
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1999
Barrett licenses key patent to SensAble Technologies for its PhanTom® haptic device.
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2000
The special Guinness World Records 2000, Millennium Edition cites the WAM® arm as the world’s “Most Advanced Robotic Arm” pp 170-171.
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2003
Townsend awarded Joseph F Engelberger Award
Townsend is awarded the prestigious Joseph F. Engelberger Award in Technology for his introduction (in 1987) of the first haptically-enabled robot designed for safe physical human interaction.
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2004
Barrett introduces 1st-generation Puck® networked brushless-motor controller.
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2010
DARPA's ARM program purchases WAM+Barretthand systems
DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) ARM (Advanced Robotic Manipulation) program purchases 14 WAM+BarrettHand systems in its quest to explore the limits of Artificial Intelligence.
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2015
Technische Universität Berlin leverages WAM® arm kinematics to win Amazon Challenge.
Technische Universität Berlin, leveraging the superior dexterity of the WAM® arm kinematics, takes first place among 28 teams from 9 countries at the Amazon Challenge with 148 points, beating 2nd-place MIT (using ABB robots) at 88 points. Runners-up include arms from UR, Fanuc, Yaskawa-Motoman, and ReThink.
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2017
Barrett reaches $40m in sales
Barrett’s WAM® and BarrettHand™ products installed in 18 countries across six continents with a cumulative value of $40m.
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2018
Barrett introduces P3™ Puck®
Barrett introduces its new P3™ (3rd-gen) 2.5-gram Puck® motor controller to OEMs, selling its first 1,000 units.
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2019
Burt® sales mark the beginning of Barrett Medical
Burt® sales begin under the Barrett Medical brand. WAM® arm, BarrettHand™, and Puck® rebranded under the Barrett name as Advanced Robotics.
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2022
Barrett wins US Patent #11,290,043 on novel ultra-high-performance method for commutating brushless servomotors.
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2023
Barrett Medical fields sales team across US, led by Matt Rigby, Chief Commercial Officer.