What`s new with Intera 3.2

what’s new with interaTM 3.2
and release notes
Safety Statement

Complying with ISO 10218-2 requires performing a risk assessment of each application to
determine the needed safety performance and safeguarding. ANSI RIA R15.06-2012 is a U.S.national adoption of ISO 10218-1 & 2.

Users should exercise caution while training Baxter and practicing its motions. The risk of injury
is increased when using custom end-effectors, off-vertical motions, and potentially hazardous
work pieces.

Rethink Robotics recommends the use of safety glasses when interacting with Baxter, as with
other equipment used in industrial environments.

For additional information, reference Baxter’s Safety
Documentation: http://www.rethinkrobotics.com/resources/safety/

Baxter’s maximum transit speed is now controlled to 2 meters per second. (2 m/s).
What’s New with Intera 3.2 and Release Notes
page 2
This document will provide a preview of what’s new in Intera 3.2 as well as a list of important
release notes. Please remember to read the entire “READ ME FIRST” installation guide before
updating Baxter to Intera 3.2.
What’s New?
Increased Flexibility

Create tasks without a pick and place – You can now create a hold as a distinct subtask;
you no longer need to create a pick and a place to be associated with a hold. Baxter will
move to the hold location, hold for as long as you define, and then move on to its next pose.

More end effector options – Attach an end effector or don’t attach an end effector -- the
choice is yours. Beside attaching end effectors that are already supported, you can easily
attach a vision system, a dispenser, or other non-grasping end effectors.

Configuring End Effectors Made Easy – Now you simply enter the weight and length
when attaching Rethink’s electric parallel gripper. Also, Intera recalls the last configured
gripper parameters, making reconfiguring much quicker. So if you unplug the end effector
for calibration, for example, when you plug it back in, you can reconfigure the end effector
with a single click.

No movement at start up – The arms no longer move when you power on the robot. This
keeps the arms from inadvertently colliding with anything in the environment.

Define the number of attempts – By default, Baxter will attempt to pick twice. With Intera
3.2, you can define specifically how many attempts Baxter will make. You can also choose
to have the robot stop if a part is knocked out of the robot’s hand.

Apply changes to paths in both directions – Have you ever modified a custom path only
to have to then modify its return path? We now make that easy. After modifying a path, you
can now press a button to copy the changes to the return path.

Clear all actions from an arm – If desired, you can quickly delete all actions on a given
arm in a task. This is helpful when something has changed in the work cell for one arm and
you want to completely change that arm’s actions.

New confusion checklist – If the robot goes confused, Baxter now displays a checklist of
items to inspect.

Hold – A new checkbox allows you to instruct Baxter to hold a pose until it receives a signal
to do something else. This gives you greater flexibility when working with tasks that require
signals to move on from a hold.

Delete all tasks from the gallery – You can quickly delete all tasks in the gallery by
pressing the Rethink button and confirming the deletion.
New Signals

New Signal Association UI – Allows you to configure and assign signals much more
quickly than in previous releases.

Internal Signals – Use Intera’s existing signaling architecture to communicate between
arms. For example, for more granular coordination between arms, send a “Done” signal
What’s New with Intera 3.2 and Release Notes
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when a pick completes on a right arm to trigger the left arm with a “Ready” signal.This
reduces the need of a PLC in some cases.

Do Subtask – Associate this signal with subtasks. When the signal is true, it executes a
specific subtask.

Active Signal – Use with Holds to trigger an external device like a dispenser or vision
system until the signal goes false.

Pause Signal – When this signal goes true, the robot pauses where it is and then
continues when this signals goes false.

Existing Signals’ Enhancements – Use Start and End signals on subtasks; Ready can
be set to gate or enable; Ready’s “reset count” can now be set to “Never.” There is a
new Reset Count signal.
Intera 3.2 Release Notes


The device name of “Torso,” which represents Baxter’s single input and single output
signal, has been changed to “Robot.”

If a Reset Count signal is associated to an action or subtask, the robot will not go
confused when a count is completed.

If for some reason you need to downgrade the robot, you must download the Intera 3.1.2
software. You cannot downgrade from Intera 3.2 to Intera 3.1.1 or 3.1. Tasks created in
Intera 3.2 are not compatible with earlier versions of software. Note that downgrading
from 3.2 to 3.1.2 will remove all tasks, gripper settings, etc.

If you delete an external MODBUS device from the robot, any tasks in the gallery that
have signals associated with that device will automatically be set to the “Internal” device.
If you reconfigure that external MODBUS device, you need to edit each of the signals in
the task to match the new device.

The Error input signal now stops the robot and requires human interaction to start the
robot again. This signal should be used for serious failures from other components of the
line when you want the robot to stop working. If you simply want to pause the robot
when a signal goes true, and have it continue working when the signal goes false, we
recommend you use the new Pause signal introduced in Intera 3.2.

The holding force parameter in the electric parallel gripper settings has been removed
from the UI in this release. Once the gripper detects an object, the motors stop driving
and lock in position. Previously, if the gripper was detecting that it lost a part, this
"Holding Force" parameter would drive the motors closed again. The problem had been
that when this value was changed from the default 30% to a higher value, it could cause
the gripper shuttles to jam and fail calibration. If you need to control the force but keep
the grip speed slow, the better parameter to use would be object detection force. Lower
your grip speed and keep object detection force higher. That will allow you to use a
greater force in getting the fingers to a successful pick position that will hold the part
firmly.
We've made the configuration of end effectors more straightforward and intuitive. Now you
may input the total weight of the whole end effector assembly (for parallel/pneumatic gripper
What’s New with Intera 3.2 and Release Notes
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plus fingers, as well as suction gripper base plus any structures and suction cups).
Previously the robot was adding the weight of the default parallel gripper base (0.3kg)
automatically to the configured FINGER weight. Therefore, after upgrading to 3.2, the
displayed total weight of the parallel gripper assembly will be 0.3 kg higher than the
previously configured FINGER weight in 3.1.

Similarly, after upgrading from 3.1 to 3.2, for parallel/pneumatic grippers, an extra 45mm will
be added to the previously configured finger length in 3.1, which was added by the software
automatically but is now included in the configured total length of the end effector assembly.

The length and weight of Rethink’s electric parallel grippers are below:
Component
Weight (Kilograms)
Length (Millimeters)
Electric Parallel Gripper without
fingers
0.3 Kg
43 mm
Wide Short Finger
0.02 Kg
73 mm
Narrow Short Finger
0.01 Kg
73 mm
Wide Long Finger
0.02 Kg
112 mm
Narrow Long Finger
0.02 Kg
112 mm
What’s New with Intera 3.2 and Release Notes
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What’s New with Intera 3.2 and Release Notes
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©2008-2015 Rethink Robotics, Inc. 27-43 Wormwood St, Boston, MA 02210. All Rights Reserved.
Rethink Robotics and Baxter are trademarks of Rethink Robotics, Inc.
U.S. Patents Pending.
What’s New with Intera 3.2 and Release Notes
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