Watch Boston Dynamics’ Stretch unload a DHL trailer

Listen to this article

Boston Dynamics is officially putting its Stretch robot into the hand of its customers. Its first commercial application is with DHL Supply Chain, a company that Boston Dynamics has been collaborating with since 2018, when it began developing Stretch.

DHL Supply Chain was Boston Dynamics’ first Stretch customer back in January 2022, when the company announced a $15 million deal with Boston Dynamics, and now a year later, we have a look at those robots being put to work in DHL warehouses. 

In a video released by Boston Dynamics this morning, we see Stretch using its suction gripper to unload boxes from a shipping container and onto a flexible or telescopic conveyor belt that brings the packages to DHL employees for processing. 

Once Stretch is set to start unloading, it does the work on its own without any interruption needed from DHL staff.  Even when Stretch drops a package, it readjusts its methods and picks it back up again.

With a six and a half foot extended reach and 10-foot vertical reach, Stretch is able to grab packages from all different corners of shipping containers without needing any information about how the container was loaded, or prior knowledge about the individual packages themselves. 

Stretch is the next generation of Handle, a robot Boston Dynamics introduced in 2017 that combined wheels and legs. While Stretch isn’t equipped with legs, it does have an omnidirectional mobile base with four independently controlled wheels. This means the robot can be moved into any space a pallet can fit into. 

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. Stretch uses the Pick vision system, which Boston Dynamics acquired when it bought Kinema Systems in April 2019. Pick uses high-resolution 2D and 3D vision and machine learning algorithms for robotic depalletizing. One of the main keys to success will be Stretch’s ability to handle a variety of boxes.

While this is Stretch’s first commercial deployment, DHL plans to gradually scale Stretch for more tasks across multiple facilities over the next few years. DHL is also hoping to integrate Stretch into its warehouse management system so the robot knows where to go and what to pick. 

DHL isn’t the only company interested in using the Stretch robot. NFI, a third-party logistics provider (3PL), announced in August 2022 it would be spending $10 million to deploy the robot across its U.S. warehousing operations. Initially, Stretch will unload trucks and containers as a pilot program at NFI’s Savannah, GA facility in 2023. Additional deployments will take place over the next few years.

Marc Raibert, founder and Chairman at Boston Dynamics, will be keynoting the Robotics Summit & Expo, to be held May 10-11, 2023 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Raibert’s fireside chat “The Next Decade in Robotics” will close the show and hit on some of the biggest technical hurdles still facing the industry. He will also discuss opportunities for the industry going forward, and what his new AI Institute is working on. 

Kevin Blankespoor, VP and GM of warehouse robotics at Boston Dynamics, joined The Robot Report Podcast when the company unveiled Stretch in March 2021. On the podcast, Blankespoor described the evolution of the product design, the many system integration challenges, plans to improve the Pick vision system going forward, similarities between Atlas, Spot and Stretch, and much more. You can listen to that interview below.