Barrett Technology
{{Short description|American robotics manufacturer}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Barrett Technology Inc.
| logo = Barrett Technology Logo 2010.gif
| caption =
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| foundation = Cambridge, Massachusetts ({{Start date|1988}})
| founder = William Townsend
| defunct =
| location_city = 73 Chapel Street, Newton, Massachusetts
| location_country = {{nowrap|United States}}
| location =
| locations =
| area_served = Worldwide
| key_people = William T. Townsend
| industry = Robotics
| products = WAM Robotic Arm, BarrettHand
| services =
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| homepage = [http://www.Barrett.com/ Barrett.com]
| footnotes =
}}
Newton, Massachusetts, USA-based Barrett Technology was incorporated by William T. Townsend in 1990.[http://www.barrett.com/robot/company-leadership.htm Barrett Technology Inc.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101119224513/http://barrett.com/robot/company-leadership.htm |date=2010-11-19 }} - Company Information 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.”{{Cite book
| last = Kynaston
| first = Nic
| title = 'Guinness World Records, Millennium Edition'
| publisher = Guinness Media Inc.
| year = 2000
| location = London, UK
| pages = 170–171
| isbn = 1-892051-00-1}} Its 7-axis robotic arm, named the WAM arm for Whole Arm Manipulation{{cite patent
| country = US
| number = 5207114
| title = Compact cable transmission with cable differential
| gdate = 1993-05-04
| fdate = 1991-04-08
| inventor = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA) William T. Townsend (Somerville, MA)
| invent1 = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr.
| invent2 = William T. Townsend
| assign1 = Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
}} is based on Puck electronics{{cite patent
| country = US
| number = 7511443
| title = Ultra-compact, high-performance motor controller and method of using same
| gdate = 2009-03-31
| fdate = 2005-09-30
| inventor = William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA) Adam Crowell, (Beverly, MA) Gill Pratt, (Lexington, MA), Traveler Hauptman, (Watertown, MA)
| invent1 = William T. Townsend
| invent2 = Adam Crowell
| invent3 = Gill Pratt
| invent4 = Traveler Hauptman
| assign1 = Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
}} and mechanical{{cite patent
| country = US
| number = 4903536
| title = Compact cable transmission with cable differential
| gdate = 1990-02-27
| fdate = 1988-04-21
| inventor = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA), William T. Townsend, (Somerville, MA), David M. DiPietro, (Webster, NY), Brian S. Eberman, (Rochester, MN)
| invent1 = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr.
| invent2 = William T. Townsend
| invent3 = David M. DiPietro
| invent4 = Brian S. Eberman
| assign1 = Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
| country = US
| number = 5046375
| title = Compact cable transmission with cable differential
| gdate = 1991-09-10
| fdate = 1989-11-17
| inventor = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA) William T. Townsend, (Somerville, MA) David M. DiPietro, (Webster, NY) Brian S. Eberman, (Rochester, MN)
| invent1 = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr.
| invent2 = William T. Townsend
| invent3 = David M. DiPietro
| invent4 = Brian S. Eberman
| assign1 = Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
| country = US
| number = 5388480
| title = Pretensioning mechanism for tension element drive systems
| gdate = 1995-02-14
| fdate = 1993-08-04
| inventor = William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA)
| invent1 = William T. Townsend
| assign1 = Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
}} drive technologies and designed to interact directly with people.{{Cite mailing list
|title=The Science of Innovation
|mailing-list=NSF Current
|date=June 2009
|url=https://www.nsf.gov/news/newsletter/jun_09/index.jsp
|access-date=7 June 2010
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091031065655/https://www.nsf.gov/news/newsletter/jun_09/index.jsp
|archive-date=31 October 2009
}} 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.{{Cite news
|title=Robotics Offer Newfound Surgical Capabilities
|newspaper=Embedded Technology
|date=17 April 2009
|url=http://www.embeddedtechmag.com/component/content/article/5115
|access-date=6 June 2010
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710185901/http://www.embeddedtechmag.com/component/content/article/5115
|archive-date=10 July 2011
}}
The Puck powered BarrettHand BH8-series product is based on technology licensed from the University of Pennsylvania{{cite patent
| country = US
| number = 4957320
| title = Methods and apparatus for mechanically intelligent grasping
| gdate = 1990-09-18
| fdate = 1988-08-31
| inventor = Nathan T. Ulrich, (Philadelphia, PA)
| invent1 = Nathan T. Ulrich
| assign1 = Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
| country = US
| number = 5501498
| title = Methods and apparatus for mechanically intelligent grasping
| gdate = 1996-03-26
| fdate = 1994-06-07
| inventor = Nathan T. Ulrich, (Philadelphia, PA)
| invent1 = Nathan T. Ulrich
| assign1 = Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
}} and developed by Gill Pratt, Yoky Matsuoka, and William Townsend{{cite patent
| country = US
| number = 7168748
| title = Intelligent, self-contained robotic hand
| gdate = 1996-03-26
| fdate = 1994-06-07
| inventor = 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)
| invent1 = William T. Townsend
| invent2 = Traveler Hauptman
| invent3 = Adam Crowell
| invent4 = Brian Zenowich, John Lawson, Vitality Krutik, Burt Doo
| assign1 = Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
}} into its present form.
Company history
| class="wikitable" |
| 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 |
| 1993
| Barrett builds first BarrettHand prototype, combining Barrett and UPenn technologies |
| 1995
| US Patent issued on a manual cable pretensioner |
| 1997
| Barrett secures exclusive worldwide control of the WAM cable-drive patents 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 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 awarded on the Puck, other patents pending internationally |
Sources
{{Citation
| last = Rooks
| first = Brian
| title = The harmonious robot
| journal = Industrial Robot
| url = http://www.barrett.com/robot/industrial_robot_wam.pdf
| access-date = 2010-06-07
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101119225415/http://barrett.com/robot/industrial_robot_wam.pdf
| archive-date = 2010-11-19
| url-status = dead
}}
{{Citation
| last = Smith
| first = Julian
| title = Can Robots Be Programmed to Learn from Their Own Experiences?
| journal = Scientific American
| date = 23 March 2007
| url = http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=robot-learning}}
References
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