Boston Dynamics starts sales of Stretch robot for warehouses
Robot manufacturer Boston Dynamics has started selling its Stretch robot. This autonomous robot consists of an arm with a vacuum gripper on a mobile platform and is designed to move goods in warehouses. Stretch will be supplied to companies from this year.
The manufacturer say that companies such as DHL, Gap, H&M and Maersk are already customers and have purchased a Stretch robot. These companies have also been allowed to test the robot since the spring of 2021. Because these companies have already placed orders, other companies that now order a Stretch will only receive their robot from next year. Boston Dynamics does not report how many robots have already been ordered.
Stretch is made to remove goods from truck trailers and containers and move them within warehouses and distribution centers. Boston Dynamics introduced the robot a year ago. The robot can recognize and move various boxes, ranging from regular brown cardboard boxes to boxes with pictures. Stretch can lift goods weighing up to 22.7kg.
Stretch has a vacuum gripper to pick up boxes and a camera system with which the robot can detect whether it has dropped boxes, for example, and with which it can maneuver. According to Boston Dynamics, the robot does not need to be informed in advance about the size of the boxes that need to be moved, and makes all decisions about unloading itself. Stretch can run ‘more than a day shift’ on a full battery or up to sixteen hours if the larger battery is used.
The mobile platform is the size of a pallet and can be installed in a warehouse within a few days. The robot makes logistics work ‘more efficient and predictable’, says Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter, and is also safer than if a human were to carry out the work.
Playter also says that the aforementioned pilot parties indicate that they want to buy several robots and refers to an investment from DHL of $15 million that DHL would like to buy more Stretch robots. It is not clear how many robots the company will buy or how much a Stretch will cost.