Rethink Robotics offers Sawyer SDK for robotics researchers, educators

Feb. 12, 2018 – Rethink Robotics has unveiled the Sawyer Software Development Kit (SDK), a software upgrade designed for researchers and students to build and test programs on the Sawyer robot.

With a range of uses for university research teams and corporate R&D laboratories, Sawyer SDK offers further compatibility with ROS and Open Source robotics tools, as well as a solution to increase access to robotics in the classroom. According to the company, Sawyer SDK now integrates with the Gazebo Simulator, which creates a simulated world that will visualize the robot and its contact with the environment, allowing researchers to run and test code in the simulation before running it on the robot. Sawyer’s Gazebo integration is completely open source, it notes, allowing students to run simulations from their individual laptops without a robot until they are ready to test the code in real time.
 
In addition to the Gazebo integration, Sawyer SDK includes a new motion interface that allows researchers to program the robot in Cartesian space, which Rethink Robotics says will help lower the barriers for motion planning for programmers without a full robotics background. The new release also allows researchers to leverage new impedance and force control. Sawyer SDK also includes support for ClickSmart, the family of gripper kits that Rethink announced last year.