In the first quarter of 2011, Chiba University, a respected national university in the Chiba prefecture of Japan, will purchase four complete WAM+BarrettHand systems from Barrett Technology Inc. According to Chiba University science park center, “We chose Barrett’s WAMs in order to explore scientifically the ability of pairs of highly agile arms to work cooperatively with people and manipulate objects with people-like dexterity.”

Barrett CEO Bill Townsend the sale is an important one for the company, and noted, “The science, algorithms, and software that will be developed at Chiba continue to strengthen the WAM arm’s unique style of physical manipulation and operating in peopled environments. Before now, robotics was seen as the poorest child of the high-tech market. However, just as the rest of high-tech seems to be faltering, this new type of robotics is accelerating. Ultimately, we see tens of millions of robots interacting with people in scores of applications. This sale represents one of the important steps in that direction.”