Barrett Technology

Barrett Technology is an American robotics company headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts, founded in 1988 by Bill Townsend as a spinoff from the MIT AI Laboratory. The company operates two divisions: Barrett Drive Systems (drive components and motor controllers) and Barrett Medical (rehabilitation devices). Its flagship products include the BarrettHand gripper, the 7-axis WAM (Whole Arm Manipulator) arm with cable-differential drive, the ultra-compact Puck® brushless motor controller, and the Burt® FDA Class-II rehabilitation robot. The WAM arm was recognized in the Guinness World Records Millennium Edition as the "most advanced robotic arm"; an early licensed version of the technology formed the basis of the MAKO surgical robot. Development of the Puck® controller was co-funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy.