【中美创新时报2024 年 9 月 16 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）六年前，总部位于波士顿的 Rethink Robotics 因试图销售可以与人类协作的工业机器人而倒闭。但 Rethink 又回来了。这家曾经备受追捧的公司现在归一家德国工业公司所有，它重返波士顿，准备推出新的协作机器人，即“cobots”，与 Rethink 最初的机器几乎没有相似之处。《波士顿环球报》记者Hiawatha Bray对此作了下述报道。
“我们目前正在寻找一个可以成为我们员工家园的空间，”Rethink 母公司 United Robotics Group 业务发展副总裁 Julia Astrid Riemenschneider 说。目前，Rethink 已在海港区的 MassRobotics 创新中心开设了店铺，并正在招聘机器人和软件开发方面的职位。
Rethink 当时很火。它成立于 2008 年，当时名为 Heartland Robotics，获得了通用电气、高盛和亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝佐斯等 1.5 亿美元的资金。其联合创始人罗德尼·布鲁克斯曾是麻省理工学院的教授，也是 iRobot 的联合创始人，iRobot 是自动吸尘器制造商，也是第一家通过向消费者销售产品获利的机器人公司。（布鲁克斯拒绝了置评请求。）
Rethink 部分基于布鲁克斯在麻省理工学院的研究，开发了带有电动机的机械臂，当它们撞到障碍物时会立即冻结。这使得机器人足够安全，可以与人类并肩工作。Rethink 基于该技术开发了两个机器人系统。
但工业客户并不为所动。他们希望使用 Rethink 的机械臂执行焊接、金属切割、机器组装或包装成品等精确操作。Rethink 机器人的安全机制包含减震弹簧，以减少意外撞击的影响。不幸的是，弹簧使机械臂略微弯曲，这使得它们对于许多工业任务来说太不精确了。
与此同时，许多其他公司也提出了更成功的设计。其中包括行业领导者 Universal Robots，这是一家丹麦公司，由北雷丁的 Teradyne 拥有。自 2005 年成立以来，Universal Robots 已售出超过 75,000 台协作机器人。
到 2018 年，Rethink 耗尽了资金和客户。该公司将其知识产权出售给德国的 Hahn 集团，后者成立了 United Robotics Group 来销售协作机器人。
“我们看到了这款 [Rethink] 机器人的潜力，它与当时所有其他机器人都截然不同，”Riemenschneider 说。但 United 在尝试营销机器人时遇到了与 Rethink 相同的问题。 “我们直接、立即就知道，该产品不够坚固，不适合工业环境，”她说。
因此，该公司创建了一条完全不同的产品线，并于上周在芝加哥的机器人贸易展上亮相。产品包括一个独立的机械臂和一辆顶部安装有机械臂的自动驾驶汽车，可以在工厂内从一个工作岗位移动到另一个工作岗位。它适用于从货架库存到组装机器等各种工作。
里门施奈德说，Rethink 机器将在德国制造。但她表示，如果对机器人的需求足够大，最终组装可能会转移到美国。
题图：Rethink Robotics 在易主后重新开业，并准备推出可以与人类一起工作的新型工业机器人。Rethink Robotics
附原英文报道：
Rethink Robotics, once a prominent startup, returns to Boston
By Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff,Updated September 15, 2024
Rethink Robotics is back in business under new ownership and is preparing to roll out new industrial robots that could work with humans.Rethink Robotics
Six years ago, Boston-based Rethink Robotics went out of business trying to sell industrial robots that could work in collaboration with humans.
But Rethink is back. The once-hyped company, now owned by a German industrial firm, is coming back to Boston and preparing to roll out new collaborative robots, or “cobots,” that bear little resemblance to Rethink’s original machines.
“We are currently looking for a space that can become a home for our employees there,” said Julia Astrid Riemenschneider, vice president of business development at Rethink’s parent company, United Robotics Group. For now, Rethink has set up shop in the Seaport District at the MassRobotics innovation hub, and is advertising job openings in robotics and software development.
Rethink was a hot item back in the day. It was founded in 2008 as Heartland Robotics, with $150 million in funding from General Electric, Goldman Sachs, and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, among others. Its cofounder Rodney Brooks was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and cofounder of iRobot, maker of automated vacuum cleaners and the first robotics company to make a profit selling to consumers. (Brooks declined a request for comment.)
Based in part on Brooks’s MIT research, Rethink developed robot arms with electric motors that instantly froze when they bumped against an obstacle. This made robots safe enough to work side-by-side with human beings. Rethink developed two robotic systems based on the technology.
But industrial customers were unimpressed. They wanted to use Rethink’s robotic arms to perform precise operations like welding, metal cutting, machine assembly, or packaging finished goods. The Rethink robots’ safety mechanism contained shock-absorbing springs to reduce the effects of accidental impacts. Unfortunately, the springs made the robot arms flex slightly, and that made them too imprecise for many industrial tasks.
Meanwhile, a host of other companies came up with more successful designs. These include industry leader Universal Robots, a Danish company owned by North Reading-based Teradyne. Universal Robots has sold over 75,000 cobots since its founding in 2005.
Rethink ran out of money and customers by 2018. The company sold its intellectual property to the Hahn Group in Germany, which established United Robotics Group to sell cobots.
“We saw the potential of this [Rethink] robot that was really different from all the other robots that were around at that time,” said Riemenschneider. But United ran into the same problems as Rethink when it tried to market the robots. “We directly and immediately knew that the product is not strong enough for the industrial environment,” she said.
So the company has created an entirely different product line, which it unveiled last week at a robotics trade show in Chicago. The offerings include a stand-alone robotic arm and an autonomous vehicle with an arm mounted on top, which can be moved from job to job inside a factory. It’s designed for jobs ranging from stocking shelves to assembling machinery.
The Rethink machines will be built in Germany, said Riemenschneider. But she said that if there’s sufficient demand for the robots, final assembly could be moved to the US.
