Rodney Brooks, founder & CTO of Rethink Robotics, accepted the IndustryWeek Industry Excellence Award for Manufacturing Technology Leadership via video at the recent IW Manufacturing & Technology Show.
Brooks was chosen by IW editors for the honor because he has done more than any other individual to pioneer and popularize collaborative robots, or cobots, that can safely work alongside people on a factory assembly line. In doing so, the editors contend, he has led the next generation of factory automation and, with the low-cost of the robots, made practical the use of robots in small and midsize manufacturing plants.
The IndustryWeek Industry Excellence Awards program is a new series of awards that recognize innovation in business manufacturing leadership. The program celebrates leaders who are at the forefront of technology, talent and operations transformation, and who have shown an ability to bring lasting value and growth to their enterprises and communities.
In this, the first year of the program, IW honored a manufacturing talent leader, Bob Chapman chairman and CEO of Barry Wehmiller, and manufacturing lifetime achievement leaders Jim and Anne Davis, chair and vice-chair of New Balance.
In 2017, IW will unveil a full slate of Industry Excellence Awards.
