Have you ever seen a robot blush? Baxter, the chunky red robot with a face, can do that … when he makes a mistake. But that’s OK – he’s learning. He’s at school. His teachers and trainers are a combined group from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Boston University.
Baxter is the product of Rethink Robotics. The company advertises “smart, collaborative robots” for use in manufacturing and industry. This two-armed model was preceded by Sawyer, a one-armed version with strong sensing capabilities allowing it to work safely next to humans in collaborative settings.