Stretch

Stretch is a multi-purpose mobile robot designed to tackle a number of material handling tasks, starting with truck and container unloading. It's untethered and has a pallet-sized footprint, making it easy to deploy within existing warehouse infrastructure.

Creator

Boston Dynamics

Year

2021

Country

United States 🇺🇸

Categories

Industrial

Features

A 360 degree spinning view of a large wheeled mobile base with an articulated arm ending in a vacuum gripper holding a cardboard box. — See a 360° view of Stretch. Photos: Bob O'Connor

Did you know?

Stretch can move 800 heavy boxes per hour.

Stretch, a large black and grey mobile base with an articulated arm ending in a rectangular suction pad, sits in a factory. A vertical black column with a light extends from the base. — Just a robot, hanging out in a warehouse, looking for boxes to move. Photo: Boston Dynamics

Stretch gets a job at DHL. Video: Boston Dynamics

History

In 2021, Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm famous for its dancing quadrupeds and jumping humanoids, introduced a more tame robot. Stretch is the company's first warehouse-specific robot, capable of autonomously unloading boxes from a truck and placing them onto a conveyor belt. Stretch is part of the Boston Dynamics' strategy to continue building innovative robots while also being able to commercialize its creations, staring with applications in logistics and material handling. Boston Dynamics says Stretch was originally developed because of interest received from a video of the company's Atlas humanoid moving boxes. Stretch is a descendent of Handle, a previous research robot that Boston Dynamics developed by combining wheels with legs.

The Stretch factory robot has a large black and grey mobile base supports an articulated arm that holds a cardboard box. Multiple exposures show the box being lowered to the ground. — Action! Photo: Bob O'Connor

The Stretch robot sits in a blue shipping container, holding a cardboard box by the vacuum gripper at the end of its arm. — 798... 799... 800! Photo: Boston Dynamics

Specs

Overview: Works up to two full shifts on a single battery charge. Powerful vacuum gripper that unloads hundreds of cases per hour and a range of package types and sizes. Advanced vision system detects surroundings to autonomously recover fallen packages. Requires no pre-programming of SKU numbers or information on box sizes. Pallet-sized footprint and untethered by power or air lines. Can be installed and ready to work within existing warehouse infrastructure in five days or less.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2021
Website: bostondynamics.com/products/stretch
Width: 100 cm
Height: 320 cm
Length: 125 cm
Weight: 1300 kg
Speed: 10.8 km/h (max)
Sensors: Cameras, time-of-flight (ToF) sensors, lidar
Actuators: All-electric actuation
Degrees of Freedom (DoF): 7 DoF (Arm: 7 DoF)
Compute: Custom control and computing system
Software: Custom software
Power: Lithium-ion battery (up to 16 hours of operation) and shore power