Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Baxter impresses with tasks

By Mikaela Collins
Northern Advocate·
1 Sep, 2016 10:30 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Xavier Going, 5, from Paihia interacts with Baxter the robot at Whangarei's Forum North. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Xavier Going, 5, from Paihia interacts with Baxter the robot at Whangarei's Forum North. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Baxter can serve you wine and give you a massage, and he's not prone to talking rubbish.

No, he's not Northland's most eligible bachelor, in fact he's not even human.

Baxter is an industrial robot created in 2012 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston who visited Northland this week.

The 74kg robot was in Whangarei yesterday at the Central Northland Science and Technology Fair with his "surrogate parents", the Northland Innovation Centre (NIC).

"We brought him here to Northland as we believe this could help to do boring tasks so humans can do more tasks like design and marketing. We rented the robot for a few days to inspire youth," said Martin Knoche, CEO of NIC.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The robot is owned by Callaghan Innovation and is designed to slot in where humans can.

When asked if that meant Baxter could serve wine, Nathan Stantiall, business innovation adviser for Callaghan Innovation, said yes.

"Of course he can, absolutely," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Stantiall said Baxter could also flip burgers and give a massage.

"He may not be able to cook, but he can flip burgers so there's talk about using collaborative robots in the likes of McDonald's where it is repetitive work. He would [give massages], but his conversation might not be as good [and] his sense of humour needs a bit of work," he said.

But there are a lot of tasks Baxter can do and he has been trialled at businesses throughout the country.

"We did a business trial at a punch press shop, so what he was doing was feeding machine tender to the machine. Punch presses are dangerous, they're noisy and they're monotonous and boring," he said.

Mr Stantiall said questions are asked about how introducing robots would impact on jobs. He said it would create news jobs as the worker becomes the trainer.

"Also, where a production line may be deemed too expensive compared to China, rather than losing that whole production line, you introduce Baxter and keep it here."

When Baxter left the company he was last at, he received a leaving card with positive comments, despite one person saying his sister, the toaster, was better looking.

Mr Stantiall said the children who had come to look at Baxter were blown away.

Kenneth Van Beek, a 15-year-old Bream Bay College student, didn't know much about robotics a few days ago and had pretty much mastered Baxter.

"I've ordered some robotic gear this week ... Baxter drove me to get it this week."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

News in brief: Homicide investigation launched

13 May 05:00 PM
Northern Advocate

Schools reimbursed $76k after school lunch programme mishaps

13 May 05:00 PM
Northern Advocate

Move Over Cancer collaboration supports cancer survivors

13 May 05:00 PM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

News in brief: Homicide investigation launched

News in brief: Homicide investigation launched

13 May 05:00 PM

The latest news bites from around the region.

Schools reimbursed $76k after school lunch programme mishaps

Schools reimbursed $76k after school lunch programme mishaps

13 May 05:00 PM
Move Over Cancer collaboration supports cancer survivors

Move Over Cancer collaboration supports cancer survivors

13 May 05:00 PM
Cannabis advocate's supporters rally as 'Gandalf' appears in court

Cannabis advocate's supporters rally as 'Gandalf' appears in court

13 May 05:38 AM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP