Barrett Technology
American robotics manufacturer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Newton, Massachusetts, USA-based Barrett Technology was founded by Bill Townsend in 1988.[1] The company has two divisions: Barrett Drive Systems[2] and Barrett Medical[3].
Barrett Communications, Inc.
Barrett Design, Inc. | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Medical Robotics and Drive Systems |
| Predecessor | Barrett Technology, Inc.
Barrett Communications, Inc. Barrett Design, Inc. |
| Founded | Cambridge, Massachusetts (1988) |
| Founder | Bill Townsend |
| Headquarters | 320 Nevada Street, Ground Floor, Building Rear, Newton, Massachusetts , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Products | Burt®, Puck®, WAM® Robotic Arm, BarrettHand™ |
| Divisions |
|
| Website | barrett.com |
The main product line for Barrett Medical is Burt® (Barrett Upper-extremity Robotic Trainer), an FDA-registered[4] Class-II robot designed and produced in Barrett's ISO 13485-Certified[5] facility to help patients recover from stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal-cord injury, and other neurological impairments.[6] Burt® is protected by US Patents as recently as 2025 with international equivalents.[7][8][9][10] The president of Barrett Medical is Matt Rigby.
The main product line for Barrett Drive Systems is the Puck® brushless servomotor controller+encoder. Inspired by Gill Pratt, Barrett Drive System's Puck® is a miniature brushless motor controller developed by Barrett Technology with funding from US NASA[11] and DOE[12] contracts. Designed to replace traditional motor controllers, the Puck® integrates electronic space-vector commutation, power amplification, and a magnetic encoder into a single compact solid-state module that mounts directly to the tail-end of any brushless motor.[13] This internal integration eliminates the need for wires and connectors between a separate controller and encoder, which improves reliability and simplifies assembly.[14] The controller architecture utilizes a precise current (i.e. motor torque) control method that halves the traditional noise floor; this novel technique was granted multiple US Patents as recently as 2025 with international equivalents.[15][16][17][18][19][20] The most recent iteration of the controller product line, includes the 400W-peak, P4-16™, which has a total volume of 1.2 cubic centimeters, diameter of 16 mm and weighs 2.0 grams.[21] The president of Barrett Drive Systems is CJ Valle.
Previously, Barrett manufactured advanced robotic arms and hands for advanced research, installed in 20 countries on 6 continents, and are still being used and produced. Barrett was credited in The Guinness Book of World Records, Millennium Edition, as maker of the world's “most advanced robotic arm.”[22] Its 7-axis robotic arm, named the WAM® arm for Whole Arm Manipulation[23] is based on Puck® electronics[24] and mechanical[25][26][27] drive technologies and designed to interact directly with people.[23][28] One application of an early version of the technology has been the arm manufactured and sold by MAKO Surgical Corp. which enables haptically-guided minimally-invasive knee surgery.[29]
The Puck powered BarrettHand™ BH8-series product is based on technology licensed from the University of Pennsylvania[30][31] and developed by Gill Pratt, Yoky Matsuoka, and William Townsend[32] into its present form.
Company history
| 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[25][26] issued on cable-drive technologies |
| 1993 | Barrett builds first BarrettHand™ prototype, combining Barrett and UPenn technologies[30][31] |
| 1995 | US Patent[27] issued on a manual cable pretensioner |
| 1997 | Barrett secures exclusive worldwide control of the WAM® cable-drive patents[25][26] 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[32] 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[24] 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
Rooks, Brian, "The harmonious robot" (PDF), Industrial Robot, archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-19, retrieved 2010-06-07
Smith, Julian (23 March 2007), "Can Robots Be Programmed to Learn from Their Own Experiences?", Scientific American
