Baxter

Overview

Baxter is a discontinued dual-arm collaborative robot developed by Rethink Robotics and launched in 2012. It was notable for its animated face display, compliant Series Elastic Actuator joints, and an early emphasis on programming by demonstration. Rethink Robotics filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and was acquired by HAHN Group, which continued limited operations but did not revive Baxter as a commercial product. As of 2026, Baxter is no longer manufactured or officially supported.

Each arm has 7 degrees of freedom with 2.2 kg payload per arm and a reach of approximately 1,210 mm. The Series Elastic Actuators provided passive compliance, allowing the arms to absorb contact forces without requiring precise force sensor calibration.

Key Specifications

• Payload per arm: 2.2 kg
• Reach per arm: approximately 1,210 mm
• Degrees of freedom: 14 (7 per arm)
• Repeatability: ±5 mm (by design, low-precision)
• Software: ROS-based SDK (community maintained)

Baxter was never designed for high-precision manufacturing. Its repeatability of ±5 mm reflects its origins as a research and demonstration platform.

Software Support Situation

Official Rethink Robotics software support ended with the company's bankruptcy. ROS drivers and the open-source SDK have been maintained by the research community, but there is no commercial software update path and no official integration with modern industrial fieldbus standards. Any Baxter deployment in 2026 relies entirely on community-supported ROS packages, which introduces risk for production environments.

Buying Used

Baxter units occasionally appear on eBay UK, university surplus sales, and robotics reseller platforms. Prices range from £500 to £3,000 depending on condition. The primary buyers are university research labs and hobbyist developers. Before purchasing, confirm that the controller PC boots correctly and that the ROS workspace on the controller is intact. Spare parts such as actuators and end-of-arm tooling are limited to what is available from other Baxter owners.

Alternatives to Consider

• Universal Robots UR5e: Fully supported, large secondhand market, suitable for production use.
• Franka Emika Panda (discontinued): More precise 7-axis arm, also secondhand-only but with ongoing community ROS support and a more active ecosystem.
• ABB YuMi: Actively supported dual-arm cobot with commercial software updates.