Rethink Robotics

Rethink Robotics was founded by Rodney Brooks, one of the most legendary figures in robotics — the former director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the co-founder of iRobot (makers of the Roomba). Brooks' vision was to create 'collaborative robots' (cobots) that could work safely alongside humans in manufacturing environments, without the cages and safety barriers required by traditional industrial robots. Rethink launched Baxter in 2012 — a friendly-looking two-armed robot with an animated face that could be 'trained' by physically moving its arms through desired motions rather than programming. Baxter was priced at $22,000 to $25,000, far below traditional industrial robots costing $100,000+. The concept attracted $150 million from investors including Jeff Bezos' personal investment fund. But Baxter had critical performance problems. It was too slow and imprecise for most manufacturing tasks, making it unsuitable for the industrial applications it was designed for. In 2015, Rethink launched Sawyer, a more precise single-arm robot, but it still struggled to match the speed and reliability of cheaper traditional automation. The company was caught in a painful middle ground: too expensive for the small manufacturers it targeted, and too imprecise for the large manufacturers who could afford it. Despite Brooks' legendary reputation and strong funding, Rethink Robotics suddenly shut down in October 2018, laying off all 150 employees. The company's patents and IP were acquired by HAHN Group, a German automation company. Rethink's closure stunned the robotics industry and demonstrated that even a world-class founder with a brilliant concept must deliver a product that meets real-world performance requirements.