A global leader in the commercialization of robotics, micro-systems, and sensor technologies: Sarcos

 ‘Developing revolutionary products to improve health, safety, and quality of life.’

sarcos is a global leader in the development and production of dexterous robotic systems for use in unstructured environments. The company is a global leader in the commercialization of robotics, micro-systems, and sensor technologies for use in the healthcare, life sciences, telecommunications, robotics, defense, and entertainment industries. Leveraging more than thirty years of research and development, Sarcos is producing human-controlled robots to improve health, safety, and quality of life by keeping humans out of harm’s way. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sarcos was founded in 1983 by Stephen Jacobsen and operated principally as a bioengineering research institution.

Sarcos has developed technologies in partnership with, and for, government agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, Fortune 100 companies such as AT&T, Boeing, Ford, Merck, and Xerox PARC, and universities such as MIT and Carnegie Mellon.

The company, which was spun out from the University of Utah, has a rich legacy of innovation that can be found in a wide variety of applications, ranging from the robotic pirates and dinosaurs at well-known theme parks, to Sarcos has built some of the animated pirates seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction appearing at four Disney theme parks, the Wicked Witch of the West audio-animatronic at Disney's Hollywood Studios' The Great Movie Ride, the robotic dinosaurs for Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the robotic fountains for the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas. The company has also built NASA space suit testing equipment, prosthetic limbs, and MEMS sensors. Time Magazine named Sarcos’ Iron Man-like exoskeleton robot one of “The 50 Best Inventions of 2010”.

A wide variety of robotic devices for different applications

Sarcos is focused on commercializing a family of three dexterous robots that enable human operators to perform tasks in physical environments that are inaccessible or too dangerous for humans, or where the task itself is too dangerous or time consuming for humans to perform safely or efficiently.

Guardian S - Snake and Scorpion Robots: The Sarcos Snake Robot represents a first-of-its-kind surveillance and inspection robot that is fully capable, cost-effective, and portable. Weighing approximately 10 pounds, the Snake Robot can be tele-operated from miles away, can reliably traverse challenging terrains including stairs, culverts, pipes, tanks, and many vertical surfaces, and can facilitate two-way real-time video and voice communication.

The Sarcos Scorpion Robot is an advanced version of the Snake Robot, equipped with precision, force-sensing end-effectors to enable highly dexterous tasks under tele-operation control. As a remote inspection and monitoring tool with optional interventional capabilities, the Snake and Scorpion Robots have wide applicability in industries ranging from public safety, security, non-destructive testing, defense, disaster recovery, infrastructure inspection and maintenance,aerospace, maritime, oil and gas, and mining.

Presently, Sarcos is demonstrating the Guardian S robot to public safety personnel as a robot that can solve existing unmet public safety needs, such as being a “man-portable”, having superior surveillance capabilities, possessing the ability to climb stairs and over vehicles, and having optional end-effectors in the future that can dexterously manipulate and defuse explosive devices.

Guardian GT - Big-Arm Robots: The Sarcos Guardian GT provides an unparalleled combination of dexterity and strength to the operator. Mounted on an agile vehicle base, the Sarcos GT’s dual-armed system can lift payloads up to 1,000 pounds, dexterously, and with minimal human effort. Utilizing Sarcos’s proprietary high-fidelity force reflection technology, the operator feels the scaled forces experienced by the arms, even if the system is tele-operated from miles away.

The Guardian GT – Big Arm system is Sarcos’s technical solution to the 40 to 400 pounds “lift gap” that exists in many commercial, industrial, and first responder environments. The system builds on concepts and technologies developed to augment the strength of the operator.

- Configuration: The Guardian GT – Big Arm system is a single, or dual-armed, human-controlled robot mounted on an agile tracked vehicle base. Each 7-foot arm has 7 Degrees of Freedom (DOFs), plus a task set-specific end effector, and can reach objects up to four feet in front of the mobile platform. The system can be used as shown, or controlled remotely with a fiber optic or RF link.

- Payload: A dual-armed system can lift payloads up to 400 lbs anywhere in its workspace and move/transport/position them dexterously, with minimal effort.

- Mobile Base + Power: Modified COTS tracked base. Current platform uses a diesel-fueled engine and can travel at 4 mph.

- Control: Guardian GT – Big Arm is a master-slave tele-operation system that is kinematically equivalent to the operator. The slave arms move every way the operators arm move and the operator feels the scaled forces experienced by the slave (high fidelity force reflection). As a result, the system is intuitive, robust and safe to operate.

Additional Benefits:

- Minimal Training required (intuitive to use),

- Operator is out of the work space (increased safety), and

- Faster, more efficient handling of otherwise difficult to manipulate objects.

Commercial and Industrial Applications:

- Handling heavy material, including sheet metal (Metal Fabrication, Ship Building)

- Welding, grinding, application of protective coatings, inspection

- Performing placement functions of high-weight components in aid of logistics, assembly and/or joining

- Combine advantages of humans (ability to operate in complex and unstructured environment) with the advantages provided by robots (strength, stamina, repeatability, precision, speed)

- Nuclear Reactor Inspection & Maintenance (remote tele-operation)

- Petroleum Industry, Construction, Heavy Equipment Manufacturing

First responder and Logistics Applications:

Palletizing and de-palletizing

- Loading and unloading supplies

- Shipboard and in-field logistics

- Erecting temporary shelters

- Equipment repairs

• Disaster recovery/humanitarian assistance (moving rocks and debris in a controlled manner, Med-Evac)

As a result, the Sarcos GT’s system is intuitive, robust, and safe to operate even in dangerous or hazardous environments. It requires minimal training to use and enables handling of difficult-to-manipulate objects with a high degree of control. The current GT system has already been successfully demonstrated to significantly improve shipbuilding efficiency, safely completing in minutes tasks that typically take several workers many hours to perform, while minimizing the opportunity for human injury. Sarcos intends to initially market this product to manufacturing, construction, logistics and transportation markets.

Guardian XO – Exoskeleton Robot:

Building on Sarcos’ award-winning XOS-2 exoskeleton robot, the Sarcos Guardian XO robot represents the next stages in the evolution of high-performance, highly dexterous, untethered robots. The Guardian XO is the commercial version of the XOS-2, which augments human strength and endurance, enabling the operator to perform hours of physical activity that would otherwise be impossible for a single human to perform. The Guardia XO will be relevant to a multitude of large global markets, including manufacturing, construction, health care, logistics, oil & gas, public safety and defense industries. The Guardian XO is currently under development.

Powered exoskeleton history: In 2000, DARPA requested design proposals for a powered military exoskeleton. Of the 14 designs submitted, DARPA chose the one submitted by Sarcos. The Sarcos design involves a suit powered by a single engine, including a tank holding 30 hours of fuel that sits near the wearer's buttocks. The suit gives the wearer increased strength and endurance through servo motors powered by the engine. The finished suit is named the XOS Exoskeleton and weighs approximately 195 pounds. Popular Science reported that the XOS gives wearers the ability to lift 200 pounds (91 kg) "repeatedly with minimal strain". DARPA specifications call for the suit to allow lifting of up to 400 pounds (180 kg), but it is not known whether the XOS meets that criterion.

The army will use initial production models of the XOS for logistics and supply tasks such as repetitive lifting of heavy objects. Future models will have various combat customizations for firing heavy weapons or transporting wounded soldiers. A second iteration, the Raytheon Sarcos XOS 2, was released in 2010.

A rich legacy of innovation

With more than $260 million invested in the development of its technologies, more than $350 million in cumulative revenues, and over 300 patents related to its innovations, Sarcos’ products represent the culmination of decades of advancements in complex electro-mechanical and biologically-inspired engineered systems. Sarcos has been one of the top recipients of DARPA funding over the past three decades.

Know the Master

Benjamin Wolff, Chairman and CEO: Benjamin Wolff serves as the Chairman and CEO of Sarcos, a leading global robotics and sensor company which until recently was known as Raytheon Sarcos, a robotics group within the Raytheon Company. In this role since 2015, Wolff has responsibility for overseeing the strategic direction of the company and engaging with some the company’s strategic partners, customers and investors.

Prior to joining Sarcos, Wolff served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman Pendrell Corporation from 2009 to 2014. During his tenure, Wolff navigated a turn-around of the company by facilitating a resolution to a complex subsidiary bankruptcy, and creating more than $500 million in value for equity holders by eliminating more than $1.5 billion of consolidated debt.

In 2003, Wolff co-founded Clearwire Corporation where he served as a member of the board of directors, as Executive Vice President, company President, Co-CEO, CEO, and finally as Co-Chairman, a position he held until March 2010. Wolff managed both strategic and operational aspects of the business, growing it from a five-employee company without revenue, to 3,500 employees with more than $1 billion in revenues. He was also responsible for taking the company public in 2007, raising $12.5 billion in equity and debt financing during his tenure. Clearwire was sold to Sprint in 2013 for more than $14 billion.

Wolff often speaks on issues affecting the wireless industry, including delivering keynote addresses at industry events such as the International CTIA Wireless Conference and International 4G World Conference. A past board member of the Woodland Park Zoo and Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, Wolff currently is a member of the Board of Visitors of Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Before earning his law degree from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College in Portland,

Oregon in 1994, Wolff earned his Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University in 1991.

“Resulting from our ability to apply and deliver where no one else can, Sarcos has a strong reputation as a reliable, customer-oriented technology group.’’