On the performance of the Baxter research robot

The rise of collaborative industrial robotics in the past few years is poised to have a significant impact on manufacturing. Many have joined the movement toward developing a more sustainable and affordable collaborative robotic workforce that can safely work alongside humans; perhaps, none more so than Rethink Robotics. This paper provides a performance assessment of Rethink's Baxter research robot: its kinematic precision was compared experimentally to that of a conventional industrial arm utilizing a point-to-point motion test and writing task. In addition, the Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameters were determined and verified in order to model the kinematic chains of the robot arms. Finally, the yield of pick and place tasks consistent with the 2015 IEEE Amazon's Picking Challenge were assessed. Results show that while Baxter's precision is limited, its ability to handle common household-size items in semi-structured environments is a great asset.