Boston Dynamics Boston Dynamics has introduced its second commercial robot. After debuting the four-legged robot dog, Spot, on the market in 2020 for $ 75,000, it is now showcasing the commercial version of the Stretch, a robot that moves storage boxes available for purchase. Stretch arrived in its original form in March 2021 and after a year of on-the-job testing and further development, it became a commercial product. The purpose of the robot remains the same: it is a box that carries. Stretch is a warehouse worker who aims to quickly unload trucks, unpack boxes and build orders without any need for additional infrastructure. Box booms are not new, but they are usually stationary, which means you have to screw them to the floor at a specific point and plan your storage around the robot. The Stretch is mounted on a large wheeled base, so it has more human flexibility than it can do all day. You can drive the Stretch straight to a truck and unload boxes in the morning and then proceed to the order building later in the afternoon. The base is the same size as a pallet, so it can go almost anywhere in a warehouse. Magnification / Stretch can lead directly to a truck and start unloading the boxes autonomously. Boston Dynamics The commercial version of the Stretch has changed a lot from last year’s prototype. Boston Dynamics tells us that the production version is “scale designed” and that parts improvements have been made to help with construction and cost. A new feature is that if a stack of boxes falls, Stretch can automatically recover the fallen boxes. The commercial version of the Stretch can lift up to 50 kg and runs for 16 hours with a choice of high capacity battery. Advertising Photos say a lot. Implementation and finishing have improved dramatically since last year. The plastic lining on the body appears to have been reworked, with each part of the robot now having smooth, rounded edges. The prototype is screwed together with a series of uneven, flat panels and a bunch of loose cables at the top of the base, while the commercial version wraps everything in a nicer package. If you zoom in on the photos, many of the panels at the base look stunningly 3D. The indicator step is visible around the perimeter of the front whiteboard, and the round base section shows horizontal lines from the print layers and vertical stripes from the individual polygons representing a circle in the CAD file. With the acquisition of Hyundai, I was expecting a construction process that looks more like a car (large fiberglass panels), but it seems we are not there yet. Zoom / Not perfect in scale, but here’s the original robot versus the commercial version. Boston Dynamics / Ron Amadeo Starting with the Stretch business end, the vacuum box handle now has a box shape — a rectangle — instead of the hexagonal handle of the original, with 50 small suction heads instead of the 18 largest heads in the original. The geometry of the arm is completely different. The Prototype Stretch had a large arc shape on each part of the arm, while the commercial Stretch uses more traditional, straight arm parts. Where the arm is attached to the base, the original Stretch had a large, white rectangular shape that looked a bit like a trunk, while the commercial version turns it into a round base over the large square frame. In both versions, this base rotates as the robot’s main point of rotation, so it makes sense to be round. Advertising The large tower at the back, the “perception web”, is the main way Stretch sees the environment and now the web has all its components neatly integrated into a plastic shell. It also looks a bit smaller than the original. Last year we were told that LIDAR would be integrated into the robot base for the production version. A good point for these sensors would be the new wide, horizontal slots located at the bottom of the robot base, which would ensure that the Stretch would not run over the foot or hit anything. Enlarge / DHL is already a major customer and obviously got a sweet custom color for its order. Boston Dynamics Stretch is available for purchase, but the price is not public, so you should call the Boston Dynamics sales team. Whatever it costs, Stretch is obviously already a success. The company press release states that “Stretch has been in pilot tests with a select group of customers in recent months. All units scheduled for delivery in 2022 have already been depleted thanks to strong demand from these first customers.” Boston Dynamics now accepts Stretch bookings for 2023 and 2024. Customers so far include DHL, Gap, H&M and the logistics company Performance Team. DHL placed a multi-year order of $ 15 million announced in January. This deal obviously came with a sweet new dye and DHL will now have branded yellow robots running in the warehouse. Unfortunately, there is no YouTube video yet for the new bot in action.
