Barrett Technology Explained
Newton, Massachusetts, USA-based Barrett Technology was incorporated by William T. Townsend in 1990.[1] 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.”[2] Its 7-axis robotic arm, named the WAM arm for Whole Arm Manipulation[3] is based on Puck electronics[4] and mechanical[5] [6] [7] drive technologies and designed to interact directly with people.[3] [8] 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.[9]
The Puck powered BarrettHand BH8-series product is based on technology licensed from the University of Pennsylvania[10] [11] and developed by Gill Pratt, Yoky Matsuoka, and William Townsend[12] into its present form.
Company history
| 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 | US Patents issued on cable-drive technologies |
| 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 |
|
Notes and References
- http://www.barrett.com/robot/company-leadership.htm Barrett Technology Inc.
- Book: Kynaston
, Nic
. 'Guinness World Records, Millennium Edition' . Guinness Media Inc. . 2000 . London, UK . 170–171 . 1-892051-00-1.
- US . 5207114 . Compact cable transmission with cable differential . 1993-05-04 . 1991-04-08 . J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA) William T. Townsend (Somerville, MA) . J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr. . William T. Townsend . Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA).
- US . 7511443 . Ultra-compact, high-performance motor controller and method of using same . 2009-03-31 . 2005-09-30 . William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA) Adam Crowell, (Beverly, MA) Gill Pratt, (Lexington, MA), Traveler Hauptman, (Watertown, MA) . William T. Townsend . Adam Crowell . Gill Pratt . Traveler Hauptman . Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA).
- US . 4903536 . Compact cable transmission with cable differential . 1990-02-27 . 1988-04-21 . J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA), William T. Townsend, (Somerville, MA), David M. DiPietro, (Webster, NY), Brian S. Eberman, (Rochester, MN) . J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr. . William T. Townsend . David M. DiPietro . Brian S. Eberman . Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA).
- US . 5046375 . Compact cable transmission with cable differential . 1991-09-10 . 1989-11-17 . J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA) William T. Townsend, (Somerville, MA) David M. DiPietro, (Webster, NY) Brian S. Eberman, (Rochester, MN) . J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr. . William T. Townsend . David M. DiPietro . Brian S. Eberman . Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA).
- US . 5388480 . Pretensioning mechanism for tension element drive systems . 1995-02-14 . 1993-08-04 . William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA) . William T. Townsend . Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA).
- The Science of Innovation . NSF Current . June 2009 . 7 June 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20091031065655/https://www.nsf.gov/news/newsletter/jun_09/index.jsp . 31 October 2009 .
- News: Robotics Offer Newfound Surgical Capabilities . Embedded Technology . 17 April 2009 . 6 June 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110710185901/http://www.embeddedtechmag.com/component/content/article/5115 . 10 July 2011 .
- US . 4957320 . Methods and apparatus for mechanically intelligent grasping . 1990-09-18 . 1988-08-31 . Nathan T. Ulrich, (Philadelphia, PA) . Nathan T. Ulrich . Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA).
- US . 5501498 . Methods and apparatus for mechanically intelligent grasping . 1996-03-26 . 1994-06-07 . Nathan T. Ulrich, (Philadelphia, PA) . Nathan T. Ulrich . Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA).
- US . 7168748 . Intelligent, self-contained robotic hand . 1996-03-26 . 1994-06-07 . 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) . William T. Townsend . Traveler Hauptman . Adam Crowell . Brian Zenowich, John Lawson, Vitality Krutik, Burt Doo . Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA).
