Engineering and robotics design company Boston Dynamics has introduced Stretch, a warehouse robot designed to support the growing demand for flexible solutions in the logistics industry. The robot marks the company’s entrance into warehouse automation.
Stretch is a multipurpose mobile robot designed to tackle a number of case-handling tasks, starting with truck and container unloading and expanding into additional warehouse tasks like order building. Stretch’s technology builds upon the company’s decades of advancements in robotics to create a flexible, easily integrated solution that can work in any warehouse to increase the flow of goods and improve employee safety in physically difficult tasks.
Stretch works within existing warehouse spaces and operations, and does not require costly reconfiguration or the addition of bulky infrastructure. With a compact omnidirectional mobile base, the robot navigates easily to each point of activity. It is equipped with a custom-designed lightweight arm as well as a smart gripper with advanced sensing and controls that can handle a large variety of box types and sizes. Stretch also includes Boston Dynamics’ computer vision technology, which enables it to identify boxes easily and without any pre-programming.
Stretch can be deployed and put to work in just days and is designed to be operated by anyone, without the need for a robotics degree. By taking on repetitive and physically demanding tasks, Stretch has the potential to reduce injury and free up humans to focus on more strategic work, such as managing fleets of robots in warehouses, plants, and other industrial environments. (Boston Dynamics, www.bostondynamics.com)
