All rights reserved. WIRED Media Group So will Hyundai be an early test customer for Stretch? Then in 2017, Boston Dynamics introduced Handle, a hybrid robot that combined wheels and legs. This means we don’t necessarily have to do as much integration work.”, “The second task that we’re going to bite off is order building. But Spot’s sales were only covering a … "We knew that there was this other option out there," Blankespoor said. The mast houses both 2D and depth sensors, giving Stretch a high-up view of its surroundings. Stretch doesn’t have legs, but it does have an omni-direction mobile base with four independently controlled wheels, a custom 7-DoF industrial robot arm that can lift up to 50 pounds, a custom suction gripper and much more. The air system for the gripper is onboard the mobile base. We'll start with the base: the robot is simply mounted on a big box now, so it's stable by default and doesn't have to actively balance anymore. “At that point you hit ‘Go’ and Stretch will fully autonomously do the rest of the job unloading the boxes,” Blankespoor said. Stretch’s lineage can be traced back to Boston Dynamics’ two-legged Atlas robot, which is able to balance its weight so smoothly it can run, jump, backflip, and more. Boston Dynamics won a 2020 RBR50 Innovation Award for Spot as it jump-started the commercial quadruped market. Stretch weighs 2,650 lbs. Boston Dynamics' new "Stretch" robot can lift up to 50 pounds at a time and move up to 800 boxes an hour. "The other thing with the prototype is that our whole software team gets a jump start on developing control systems, vision and autonomy, and testing it on real hardware," Blankespoor tells us, "so that when you get the product, the systems are a lot more mature.". “We’re excited to work with Hyundai. Stretch has a greater potential for making Boston Dynamics a profitable company. This will enable Boston Dynamics to reduce the costs of manufacturing Stretch and sell it at a competitive price. Hyundai’s manufacturing facilities will also enable Boston Dynamics to deliver new parts and props for Stretch at a cost-efficient price. Learn how your comment data is processed. Hyundai Motor Group recently agreed to buy a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics from SoftBank Group Corp in a deal that values the robot maker at $1.1 billion. Register fo r the AI event of the year. “It’s pretty easy to detect a box sitting by itself. Stretch comes with an 8-hour battery life, but there will be a 16-hour battery option and the ability to plug Stretch in for continuous power. Surging North American robot shipments; wireless charging future, Copyright © 2021 WTWH Media LLC. You might think a logistics robot is out of left field for Boston Dynamics, but it’s shown interest in the space for a while. Stretch is the second commercial product of Boston Dynamics, the first one being the quadruped robot Spot. For vision, the robot uses Boston Dynamics' "Pick" software, a collection of machine-learning-powered algorithms for detecting and moving boxes, which arrived at the company via an acquisition of Kinema Systems. Blankespoor imagines a typical day in the warehouse for Stretch: "Stretch might spend the morning on the inbound side of the warehouse, unloading boxes from trucks. What we're seeing right now is the Stretch prototype, while the "product" version of Stretch will be sold sometime next year. Stretch uses the Pick vision system, which Boston Dynamics acquired when it bought Kinema Systems in April 2019. Boston Dynamics now sells a robot dog to the public, starting at $74,500, Boston Dynamics sells to Hyundai Motor Group in $1.1 billion deal. “Truck unloading is nice because it’s a little more isolated in terms of the integration tasks. We’re starting off with more straightforward trucks, but we’re going to get into more complex types of boxes, different types of boxes over the coming year.”. But he said it’s more crucial later on when Boston Dynamics starts to tackle order building. Boston Dynamics have yet to reveal how much each of the robots will cost US robotics company Boston Dynamics have unveiled a new machine to work in warehouses that can shift up 800 boxes per hour. Today, Boston Dynamics' quest for commercialization continues with the announcement of a second commercial robot, "Stretch," a box-moving bot designed to meet the demands of warehouses and distribution centers. | Photo Credit: Boston Dynamics. Boston Dynamics has now come up with a new robot named ‘Stretch’. “As people get closer to the robot, it will slow down,” he said. But Spot’s sales were only covering a fraction of the company’s costs, which were at least $150 million per year when Hyundai acquired it. Prather started his FedEx career offloading trucks while still in college. Unload trucks and build pallets faster by sending the robot to the work, eliminating the need for new fixed infrastructure. Then we started doing truck unloading with Handle. This is why it is so hard to automate this process.”. Pick uses high-resolution 2D and 3D vision and machine learning algorithms for robotic depalletizing. Stretch is a mobile box-moving robot, with a beefy arm and a large mobile base. “We got a lot of interest [for Atlas] from warehouses,” Blankespoor said. Boston Dynamics is seeking customers to pilot Stretch with truck unloading tasks. So it built a custom industrial robot arm. : Boston Dynamics. This robot will be more functional in the logistic matters. Obviously they’re a world-class manufacturer. With a clear demand for warehouse robots, Boston Dynamics started experimenting, first with its "Handle" robot. Boston Dynamics Unveils a New Warehouse Robot Called Stretch Stretch is a versatile autonomous mobile robot for quickly loading and unloading boxes. But Spot’s sales were only covering a fraction of the company’s costs, which were at least $150 million per year when Hyundai acquired it. Stretch was specifically designed to move boxes — from the back of a truck onto a conveyor belt, for example. The result was not just a new robot, but a whole warehouse-focused division inside of Boston Dynamics, headed up by Blankespoor. Just this week, Boston Dynamics, an engineering and robotics design company, launched a new product it calls the “Stretch” robot. For that task, Stretch will take on more of the kind of localization and navigation you see in some other AMRs [autonomous mobile robots] that navigate through the warehouse and have more autonomy.”, Blankespoor said collaborative robot arms lack the speed and strength to lift the number of heavy cases per hour that Boston Dynamics targeted. We'll start rolling out applications that the product can do, incrementally. “We knew we could design a simpler robot, and that’s where Handle really came from. This feature will allow Boston Dynamics to target customers who would otherwise avoid automation because of the high cost of its implementation. “When unloading a bulk loaded truck, you may start with boxes of a certain size, then you hit a layer of bigger or smaller boxes, then a layer of rugs (because people buy rugs online now), and then back to the same size boxes you started with. Stretch is the second commercial product of Boston Dynamics, the first one being the quadruped robot Spot. The robot has a long articulated arm, which ends in a “hand” equipped with several suction cups. Thus, it can lift packages of up to 50 kilograms. It could grasp the boxes and move them, but it took too long. The problem with Handle is that sometimes warehouse work needs to happen in a confined space, like unloading a truck, and it was there that the robot had problems. By Matthew Humphries March 29, 2021, 8 p.m. (Photo: Boston Dynamics) Cargo may have difficulty actually making it to warehouses right now due to a gigantic ship stuck in a canal, but once it gets there, Boston Dynamics has a new robot … But Spot’s sales were only covering a fraction of the company’s costs, which were at least $150 million per year when Hyundai acquired it. Stretch is designed as a mobile robotic arm geared specifically toward moving and stacking the never-ending stream of boxes that flood into the world’s burgeoning number of distribution warehouses. Stretch is Boston Dynamics’ first commercial robot specifically designed for warehouse facilities and distribution centers, of which there are more than 150,000 globally, according to analysts. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. And that way we can allow the arm to move heavy boxes fast without risk of hurting anyone.”, Hello Robot also has a mobile manipulator named Stretch that is designed as a research platform. Boston Dynamics introduced in February 2021 Spot Arm, a robotic arm for the Spot quadruped that offers a max lift capacity of 24.3 lbs. Currently, nearly 80% of warehouses in the world do not have automation equipment, which gives the company a huge potential market. Boston Dynamics' Warehouse Robot. “If you look at the wrist joint of Stretch, it’s actually the same as the hip joint on Spot. Hyundai has its own logistics companies in Korea, and they definitely could be a customer for us in the future.”. Stretch doesn’t have legs, but it does have an omni-direction mobile base with four independently controlled wheels, a custom 7-DoF industrial robot arm that can lift up to 50 pounds, a custom suction gripper and much more. “Stretch will be navigating the aisles of the warehouse. And for that you do need warehouse management system integration, but it should be akin to what you do with people, right? And it might spend the evening loading boxes back into trucks.". Stretch is a versatile autonomous mobile robot for quickly loading and unloading boxes. Kevin Blankespoor, Boston Dynamics’ VP of product engineering, said Stretch can pick up to 800 cases per hour. A quick YouTube search will return a slew of results. Stretch comes with an 8-hour batter… He can be reached at [email protected]. Stretch can navigate loading docks, manoeuvre in tight spaces, and adapt to changing facility layouts, which the company claims will eliminate the need for costly automation infrastructure. Hyundai’s manufacturing facilities will also enable Boston Dynamics to deliver new parts and props for Stretch at a cost-efficient price. With Handle, Boston Dynamics got as far as doing experiments with customers. For now, we're seeing a prototype, but Boston Dynamics hopes companies will start buying Stretch when it hits commercial deployment in 2022. As Blankespoor explains, "The Stretch product will look a lot like this, but it's really been totally redesigned from the ground up. Stretch can move up to 800 boxes an hour. Now we’re getting a peek at a plan in an interview with IEEE Spectrum about their new robot Stretch. Stretch is a versatile mobile robot for case handling, designed for easy deployment in existing warehouses. Atlas remains an R&D platform, while Boston Dynamics has sold more than 400 Spot robots since the quadruped first went on sale last year. “Well, we’ve definitely had interest in the warehouse space since Atlas. By … Using robots to unload freight on receiving docks isn’t a novel idea. Stretch has a greater potential for making Boston Dynamics a profitable company. When it comes to unloading a truck, for example, a person still needs to open the truck door, verify the content and move the Stretch robot into position by driving it inside the truck with a joystick. After 28 years of research and development, Boston Dynamics entered the commercial robot market last year with the launch of Spot. In fact, the video announcing this project from Boston Dynamics shows how the new Stretch can lift even the Spot robot. "We were considering something like Stretch for years.". © 2021 Condé Nast. So the Stretch product, we will start building the first units of that this summer, and then it'll go on sale next year. | Photo Credit: Boston Dynamics. Sign up or login to join the discussions! Most, if not all, trucks that need to be unloaded in the real world won’t look like that. "Boston DynamicsStretch is the first Boston Dynamics robot that's "fully purpose-built" for the warehouse, and you can see that a lot of the nimble bird design has been thrown out in favor of a big, hulking industrial robot. Enlarge / On the Atlas project, Kevin Blankespoor (left) is "Lead Behavior Engineer. Stationary arms can be as beefy as they need to be, but being mobile means Stretch needs to watch its weight. Building pallets will be the second application for Stretch, and Blankespoor envisions more autonomy in that task. Boston Dynamics was owned by Google from 2013-2017. … “We branched off and designed Handle for a couple of reasons. Industrial Perception, a company acquired by Google in 2013, partnered with Wynright on truck unloading research. Most warehouses are designed around the 48x40-inch dimensions of a pallet, so the base of Stretch just happens to have a 48x40-inch footprint, and it can fit anywhere a pallet fits. So we built a couple versions of Handle and started doing warehouse tasks.”, “First we were doing pallet building, and that was working pretty well. Stretch is designed to be able to perform a number of box moving tasks such as truck unloading and then upon further developments it will also be able to handle orders. Once the robot is in front of the truck and you say ‘Go,’ our box detection system will tell Stretch where all the boxes are, what size they are, we actually even weigh the boxes as we’re first lifting them up, so we can move them as quickly as possible. According to IEEE Spectrum, Hello Robot co-founder Aaron Edsinger, who also worked on robotics at Google while Google owned Boston Dynamics, isn’t thrilled. But the introduction of Stretch is the biggest announcement from Boston Dynamics since the acquisition. Meet Stretch. Stretch is the second commercial product of Boston Dynamics, the first one being the quadruped robot Spot. And that enabled us to get a prototype built really fast.”. The final major component of Stretch is the perception mast, a big tower that sits on the same rotating base as the arm and houses most of the robot's sensors, so it's never in the way of the arm. - Mar 29, 2021 10:00 am UTC. As you might notice in Boston Dynamics’ videos of Stretch, all the boxes inside the truck and on the pallet look identical and are perfectly stacked. One of the reasons we’re working with OTTO is to coordinate the pallet movement and the case movement with different robots.”. FedEx’s Aaron Prather discussed during his recent RoboBusiness Direct keynote that the biggest challenge in solving the truck offload issue is the high level of package diversity a solution would need to be able to handle. However, we don't know how much Boston Dynamics intends to charge for a Stretch robot yet (Spot is $75,000). Blankespoor said the two companies continue to collaborate, and it’s played an important role in the development of a fleet manager for Stretch. Stretch is the next generation of Handle, a robot Boston Dynamics introduced in 2017 that combined wheels and legs. Boston Dynamics is back with a new robot aimed at automating warehouse workers’ most physically strenuous tasks. It has just one function that is to move boxes in the warehouse. Blankespoor continues, "We thought, 'Well, Atlas is probably a bit complicated to actually go work in a warehouse, but we could design a robot that's much more simple that has the same attributes.'" The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us, Advances in Robotic Picking, Grasping and Manipulation, Boston Dynamics acquired when it bought Kinema Systems, acquired a boatload of warehouse automation patents, Here’s a video of the partnership in action, Boston Dynamics introduced in February 2021 Spot Arm, Boston Dynamics won a 2020 RBR50 Innovation Award, Boston Dynamics and OTTO Motors released a video, Hyundai Motor acquired a majority stake in Boston Dynamics, Autonomous trucking startup Plus going public via SPAC, Einride raises $110M to autonomous truck development, JASCI Software acquires AMR provider NextShift, OSARO launches new suite of integrated products and solutions, Podcast: FORT Robotics on how to keep humans safe and in control of robots, Analytics: Robotics’ untapped vein of business value.
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