Heartland Robotics, the latest robotics company from former CSAIL Director Rodney Brooks, has announced that it is changing its name to Rethink Robotics, Inc.
Brooks is the Panasonic Professor of Robotics (emeritus) at MIT, and the co-founder of iRobot. He served as the director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab and then CSAIL from 1997-2007.
Rethink Robotics will be dedicated to developing a new generation of robots that will aid in improving productivity in manufacturing environments. According to Rethink Robotics President and CEO Scott Eckert, the company is committed to maintaining manufacturing jobs in America.
Rethink Robotics products will reflect the company’s new vision of a much more broadly adopted automation approach that will do for manufacturing workers what the PC did for office workers—increase their productivity by giving them direct access to technological tools.
“Just as businesses had to completely rethink ways to use computers when the PC was first introduced, they will want to take advantage of opportunities created by this new class of robot,” said Rod Brooks, chairman, founder, and CTO of Rethink Robotics. “With our robots, businesses will have the opportunity to rethink manufacturing, rethink automation, and rethink outsourcing.”