Date: Jul 12, 2013 Author: Kyle Alspach Source: Boston Business Journal (
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by: Kyle Alspach
Robots aren't just for building cars and cleaning kitchen floors anymore.
Inventors in the Boston area are leading the charge to develop the next generation of robots, machines that are smart and safe enough to do useful work in a host of functions they've never had before, ranging from elder care to brewing coffee. The age of the smarter robot may have its epicenter in Boston if the technology of two local startups takes off.
Boston-based Rethink Robotics has gained plenty of attention for its "human-like" robot, Baxter, which can work alongside manufacturing workers on simple manual labor tasks — thanks to technology that endows the machine with a robot's version of common sense.
Rethink CEO Scott Eckert says demand has been strong for Baxter since the robot began shipping to manufacturers in January. But university researchers across the country are also exploring uses for Baxter in other settings. More than 25 research robots have shipped since late April, to universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
"Once you get a bunch of really smart people, that have access to an open platform like we've provided, it's limitless what they might create," Eckert said.
A second local company is also seeking to bring a smarter breed of robots to mainstream usage. Cambridge startup Neurala expects that its software for giving intelligence and autonomy to robots will be part of commercial products by the end of the year, CEO and co-founder Max Versace said.
While robots have been around for decades, most have only been useful in unchanging environments such as factories, said Sonia Chernova, director of the Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning lab at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
But a number of trends have converged to make a new generation of robotics technology possible. Among them: A dramatic drop in the cost of cameras and sensors such as sonar in recent years, and huge advances in computing power and software — particularly in the area of learning algorithms, or artificial intelligence.
Chernova said all these factors are fueling advances to make robots more usable in a wider variety of places. "I definitely think we're at a tipping point," Chernova said.
Baxter is ideal for settings in which it would interact with people because of its underlying common sense about what tasks it's working on, who is around it and what its own capabilities and limitations are, Eckert said. Baxter has multiple cameras, sonar and the ability to sense the force that is applied to its joints, he said.
"There is a lot of sensing going on," Eckert said. "But the enormous innovation in Baxter is the software that allows you to take all those sensor inputs and turn it into something that looks like common sense."
Baxter has two arms and a two-finger gripper on each arm, and can easily be programmed to do a variety of repetitive tasks.
A worker can teach the robot how to do the task by guiding the robot's arm. Its face doubles as a computer screen for the programming.
The Baxter robots, which sell for $22,000 apiece, are also inexpensive enough to be adopted for environments that have not had robots before, Eckert said. Service industries are a natural next stop for Baxter: Trends such as the increased need for elder care in coming years might create demand for robotic assistance in the home, Eckert said. But other service areas are possibilities as well. "A robot could be a ticket taker, or a toll taker, or could be a barista," Eckert said.
Founded in 2008 by iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks, Rethink employs 85 — most of them in Boston — and has raised $62 million in venture capital from backers including Sigma Partners, Charles River Ventures and Highland Capital Partners.
At Neurala, meanwhile, software has been developed that aims to allow humans to control robots by just verbally telling them what to do, instead of operating them using remote control or programming for a specific task.
Neurala says its software aims to serve as the "brain" for robots, allowing them to process information sources and learn in a similar way to the human brain — ultimately enabling robots to work autonomously from humans.
"What people really want is for robots to be told what to do, and then have them do it autonomously," Versace said. "That's how robots will be able to work with humans in the future. The way to do this is to give them autonomy, and ultimately they have to do it similar to how humans do it."
One customer aiming to use Neurala's software is Seattle robotics firm Romotive, which expects to eventually integrate the software into its customizable "Romo" robots. CEO Keller Rinaudo has said the technology holds the potential for turning robots into "adaptive learning beings."
Neurala expects that the first commercial application of the technology will come by the end of this year in toys, Versace said, although he says he can't offer more specifics.
That should be followed by applications in business settings in 2014. Likely business users might include executives who oversee multiple facilities, and want to assess the situation at other facilities remotely by telling a robot with a camera to check things out, Versace said.
Neurala was founded in 2006 at Boston University, as a result of research into the modeling of the human brain. The firm started out doing consulting but opted to focus on building a software business in 2011, said Versace, who is director of the Neuromorphics Lab at BU. Neurala, a graduate of this year's TechStars Boston accelerator session, is working to raise a $2 million funding round, he said.
Ultimately, while new technologies are allowing robots to be useful in new environments, robots are still nowhere near becoming equal to humans, Eckert said. "Robots are a long, long way from having the thinking capability or the dexterity of people," he said.
