He has eyes, he has arms and he can accomplish simple tasks to help your business move faster. That’s the pitch for Baxter, a two-armed robot destined for the factory floor.

Rethink Robotics, a company partly financed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has introduced its first product. The robot is named Baxter, and he’s not your ordinary factory-programmed machine.

While current industrial robots operate in factories across the world with exceptional speed and efficiency, this robot is designed to work side-by-side with humans. Consider Baxter a nicer, more-tame working robot with five built-in cameras. He can take instructions, sense trouble and complete simple tasks like moving product from one spot to another.

Baxter’s “face” is a screen that doubles as a functional interface that seems relatively simple to use. Employees can use the screen to program instructions and also see Baxter’s eyes — the robot can show concentration, surprise and sadness, among other robot-emoticons.

Rethink Robotics, formerly known as Heartland Robotics, says Baxter will not necessarily replace human jobs in the U.S., but rather bring back low-cost manufacturing jobs from overseas. It will cost $22,000 for every robot.

Rethink was founded in 2008 and has raised $62 million in VC funding already. We already know Bezos, who was the first investor of Rethink with Bezos Expeditions, loves robots enough to include them in Amazon’s warehouses. Maybe we’ll see Baxter involved in some capacity with Amazon soon enough.

Image via Rethink Robotics 

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