Roboticist Rodney Brooks on How Automation Helps Makers

Rodney Brooks, founder and CTO of Rethink Robotics, joined us at our Techonomy Detroit conference to talk about the intersection between robotics and the maker movement. Robots like Rethink’s Baxter offer small industries a tool to make workers more productive. But because Baxter operates on a software platform, it also benefits from users who think of new functionality and specializations for the robot. “There’s going to be some kids out there who come up with some ideas that we would never have thought of in a million years,” Brooks said. Those users may in turn use Baxter for smaller scale, maker oriented production.

Rodney Brooks, founder and CTO of Rethink Robotics, joined us at our Techonomy Detroit conference to talk about the intersection between robotics and the maker movement. Robots like Rethink’s Baxter offer small industries a tool to make workers more productive. But because Baxter operates on a software platform, it also benefits from users who think of new functionality and specializations for the robot. “There’s going to be some kids out there who come up with some ideas that we would never have thought of in a million years,” Brooks said. Those users may in turn use Baxter for smaller scale, maker oriented production.

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