Rethink Robotics
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Rethink Robotics was a Boston-based collaborative robotics company founded in 2008 by iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks and Ann Whitaker (originally as Heartland Robotics). It pioneered the 'cobot' category with its anthropomorphic robots: the two-armed Baxter (2012) and the one-armed Sawyer (2015), known for their animated faces, red exteriors and ease of programming via the Intera software platform. It raised nearly $150 million, including an $18 million Series E in August 2017, but its robots sold mainly to academic researchers and struggled in the industrial market.
02 / Rethink Robotics FAILURE REASONS
Why it failed
Rethink ran out of money because its robots never achieved market success. Sales of Baxter and Sawyer fell short of expectations — the robots were popular with academic researchers but struggled in industrial settings, with precision problems tied to their series-elastic actuators. CEO Scott Eckert said the company was short on cash and that an expected last-minute acquisition fell through, forcing the October 2018 shutdown despite nearly $150 million raised.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Rethink Robotics (as Heartland Robotics) was founded in Boston by Rodney Brooks and Ann Whitaker to build collaborative robots.
- Baxter and Sawyer
The company launched the two-armed Baxter and later the one-armed Sawyer, pioneering the collaborative robot category.
- Shut down
Rethink Robotics shut down on October 3, 2018 after running out of cash, with an expected acquisition falling through.
- Asset acquisition
Germany's HAHN Group acquired all of Rethink's robotic technology — patents, trademarks and the Intera 5 software — forming Rethink Robotics GmbH.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Rethink Robotics shut down on October 3, 2018.
- 02
Later that month, German automation firm HAHN Group (a former Rethink distributor) acquired all of its technology — patents, trademarks and the Intera 5 software platform — and made the business the third pillar of its robotics division as Rethink Robotics GmbH, continuing to develop Sawyer with 'German engineering'.
- 03
More than 20 former Rethink staff were hired by Universal Robots. (This record is a duplicate of the museum's 'Rethink Robotics (Detailed)' entry.)