Barrett Technology
American robotics manufacturer
title: "Barrett Technology" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["manufacturing-companies-based-in-massachusetts", "robotics-companies-of-the-united-states"] description: "American robotics manufacturer" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_Technology" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American robotics manufacturer ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Barrett Technology, LLC |
| logo | Barrett Logo R Always use this one.png |
| type | Private |
| predecessor | Barrett Technology, Inc. |
| foundation | Cambridge, Massachusetts () |
| founder | Bill Townsend |
| location_city | 320 Nevada Street, Ground Floor, Building Rear, Newton, Massachusetts |
| location_country | United States |
| area_served | Worldwide |
| key_people | |
| industry | Advanced Robotics and Robot Drives |
| products | Burt, Puck, WAM Robotic Arm, BarrettHand |
| homepage | Barrett.com |
| :: |
| name = Barrett Technology, LLC | logo = Barrett Logo R Always use this one.png | caption = | type = Private | genre = | fate = | predecessor = Barrett Technology, Inc. Barrett Communications, Inc. Barrett Design, Inc. | successor = | foundation = Cambridge, Massachusetts () | founder = Bill Townsend | defunct = | location_city = 320 Nevada Street, Ground Floor, Building Rear, Newton, Massachusetts | location_country = United States | location = | locations = | area_served = Worldwide | key_people = | industry = Advanced Robotics and Robot Drives | products = Burt, Puck, WAM Robotic Arm, BarrettHand | services = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | aum = | assets = | equity = | owner = | num_employees = | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = Barrett.com | footnotes =
Newton, Massachusetts, USA-based Barrett Technology was incorporated by Bill Townsend in 1990. 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.”{{Cite book | last = Kynaston | first = Nic | title = 'Guinness World Records, Millennium Edition' | publisher = Guinness Media Inc. | year = 2000 | location = London, UK | pages = 170–171 | isbn = 1-892051-00-1}} Its 7-axis robotic arm, named the WAM arm for Whole Arm Manipulation{{cite patent | country = US | number = 5207114 | title = Compact cable transmission with cable differential | gdate = 1993-05-04 | fdate = 1991-04-08 | inventor = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA) William T. Townsend (Somerville, MA) | invent1 = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr. | invent2 = William T. Townsend | assign1 = Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) | country = US | number = 7511443 | title = Ultra-compact, high-performance motor controller and method of using same | gdate = 2009-03-31 | fdate = 2005-09-30 | inventor = William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA) Adam Crowell, (Beverly, MA) Gill Pratt, (Lexington, MA), Traveler Hauptman, (Watertown, MA) | invent1 = William T. Townsend | invent2 = Adam Crowell | invent3 = Gill Pratt | invent4 = Traveler Hauptman | assign1 = Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) | country = US | number = 4903536 | title = Compact cable transmission with cable differential | gdate = 1990-02-27 | fdate = 1988-04-21 | inventor = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA), William T. Townsend, (Somerville, MA), David M. DiPietro, (Webster, NY), Brian S. Eberman, (Rochester, MN) | invent1 = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr. | invent2 = William T. Townsend | invent3 = David M. DiPietro | invent4 = Brian S. Eberman | assign1 = Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) | country = US | number = 5046375 | title = Compact cable transmission with cable differential | gdate = 1991-09-10 | fdate = 1989-11-17 | inventor = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr., (Cambridge, MA) William T. Townsend, (Somerville, MA) David M. DiPietro, (Webster, NY) Brian S. Eberman, (Rochester, MN) | invent1 = J. Kenneth Salisbury Jr. | invent2 = William T. Townsend | invent3 = David M. DiPietro | invent4 = Brian S. Eberman | assign1 = Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) | country = US | number = 5388480 | title = Pretensioning mechanism for tension element drive systems | gdate = 1995-02-14 | fdate = 1993-08-04 | inventor = William T. Townsend, (Weston, MA) | invent1 = William T. Townsend | assign1 = Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) |title=The Science of Innovation |mailing-list=NSF Current |date=June 2009 |url=https://www.nsf.gov/news/newsletter/jun_09/index.jsp |access-date=7 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091031065655/https://www.nsf.gov/news/newsletter/jun_09/index.jsp |archive-date=31 October 2009 |title=Robotics Offer Newfound Surgical Capabilities |newspaper=Embedded Technology |date=17 April 2009 |url=http://www.embeddedtechmag.com/component/content/article/5115 |access-date=6 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710185901/http://www.embeddedtechmag.com/component/content/article/5115 |archive-date=10 July 2011
The Puck powered BarrettHand BH8-series product is based on technology licensed from the University of Pennsylvania{{cite patent | country = US | number = 4957320 | title = Methods and apparatus for mechanically intelligent grasping | gdate = 1990-09-18 | fdate = 1988-08-31 | inventor = Nathan T. Ulrich, (Philadelphia, PA) | invent1 = Nathan T. Ulrich | assign1 = Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) | country = US | number = 5501498 | title = Methods and apparatus for mechanically intelligent grasping | gdate = 1996-03-26 | fdate = 1994-06-07 | inventor = Nathan T. Ulrich, (Philadelphia, PA) | invent1 = Nathan T. Ulrich | assign1 = Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) | country = US | number = 7168748 | title = Intelligent, self-contained robotic hand | gdate = 1996-03-26 | fdate = 1994-06-07 | inventor = 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) | invent1 = William T. Townsend | invent2 = Traveler Hauptman | invent3 = Adam Crowell | invent4 = Brian Zenowich, John Lawson, Vitality Krutik, Burt Doo | assign1 = Barrett Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
Company history
::data[format=table]
| 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 |
| 1988 | Barrett founded by Bill Townsend as latest spinoff from MIT's AI Laboratory with funds from investor, Julianne Barrett |
| 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 with support from MIT professors, Gill Pratt and Jeff Lang |
| 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 released in 2012 |
| 2009 | US Patent awarded on the Puck®, other patents pending internationally |
| 2019 | Puck®-powered Burt® (Barrett Upper-extremity Robotic Trainer) launched in the US for hospital rehabilitation after neurological injury or disease, such as stroke, spinal-cord injury, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's, and multiple sclerosis |
| 2024 | 4th-generation Puck® released |
| 2025 | Burt® surpasses 100 systems installed in the US and 400 internationally |
| :: |
Sources
| last = Rooks | first = Brian | title = The harmonious robot | journal = Industrial Robot | url = http://www.barrett.com/robot/industrial_robot_wam.pdf | access-date = 2010-06-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101119225415/http://barrett.com/robot/industrial_robot_wam.pdf | archive-date = 2010-11-19 | url-status = dead
| last = Smith | first = Julian | title = Can Robots Be Programmed to Learn from Their Own Experiences? | journal = Scientific American | date = 23 March 2007 | url = http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=robot-learning}}
References
References
- [https://barrett.com/the-barrett-team Barrett Technology Inc.] {{Webarchive. link. (2010-11-19 - Company Information)
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