Over 300,000 small manufacturing companies in the US have almost no robots due to many barriers to entry for robots and them only making economic sense for long production runs. Rethink Robotics was founded in 2008 in Boston to develop production robots for small companies. Their first product was announced in 2012 and started shipping in 2013. This new category of production robot requires no programming or safety cages, is very capable of versatile tasks, and works intelligently and safely alongside people.

1. © 2013 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.
THE REALITY OF INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS
 Over 300,000 small (< 500 employees) manufacturing
companies in the US
 Almost none of them have robots
– many barriers to entry
– make sense only for very long production runs
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2. © 2013 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.
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3. © 2013 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.
SO, RETHINKPRODUCTIONROBOTS…
 September 1st, 2008, started a new company—Rethink
Robotics (originally called Heartland Robotics)
 Based in Boston, Massachusetts
 Venture backed
 First product announced September 18, 2012
 Started shipping product in January 2013

4. © 2013 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.
A NEW CATEGORY OF PRODUCTION ROBOT
1. No integration
– A complete system. Out of the box and working in under an hour.
2. No programming
– Train the robot like you would teach a person, no expertise
required. Fast retraining for line changeover.
3. Very capable
– Incredibly versatile. Performs a wide range of simple tasks.
4. Works intelligently
– Aware of its job and environment. Adapts automatically to
changes.
5. No safety cages
– Operates elbow to elbow with people. Does human-scale task at
human cadence.
6. Extensible platform
– regular software upgrades increase its capabilities
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5. © 2013 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.