Willow Garage recognized a problem in the robotics industry: Any team that wanted to explore new uses for robots had to build its own robot from scratch. Willow Garage decided to create Personal Robot 2 (PR2) to allow researchers to focus on unsolved problems rather than on soldering parts and programming communication protocols.
Function collaborated with Willow Garage on the mechanical engineering of PR2. The robot was designed from the ground up to be robust, fully integrated, and extensible. Its human scale proportions optimize its ability to perform tasks in everyday environments.