The video “Stretch at MODEX 2024 | Boston Dynamics” showcases the autonomous capabilities of the Stretch program, led by Chief Roboticist Alex Perkins. Perkins explains how Stretch is designed to autonomously unload trailers, trucks, and shipping containers containing cases weighing up to 50 lbs and measuring up to 90 cm long. The robot consists of a perception system, an arm manipulator, a mobile base, and an independent battery pack, allowing it to navigate and operate autonomously within a facility.
Stretch has recently introduced new features such as stable case placement, liar box recovery, and multipick, which enables it to pick up to four cases simultaneously. The robot has seen significant success in customer deployments, tripling daily active case rates and reducing intervention rates by almost 80%. Stretch’s user-friendly interface and ease of operation have been well-received by customers, allowing them to deploy and operate the robot within a matter of days.
The video also hints at future developments for Stretch, including expanding into new regions like Europe and exploring applications in palletizing within warehousing facilities. The robot’s ability to provide reliable and efficient throughput while bridging labor shortages is proving to be a valuable asset for businesses looking to optimize their operations. Overall, Stretch is proving to be a game-changing solution for the logistics and manufacturing industry, offering a glimpse into the future of robotic automation.
Watch the video by Boston Dynamics
Author Video Description
We’re demonstrating Stretch, our mobile case handling robot, unloading containers autonomously at #Modex 2024, and previewing the robot’s future mobile palletizing applications.
Learn about new features we’ve released for Stretch, and where the robot is headed next.
To learn more about Stretch, visit: https://bosdyn.co/stretch
Video Transcript
My name is Alex Perkins I’m the chief roboticist for the stretch program which means I lead the software team that develops the autonomous capabilities that you’ll see today today we’re demonstrating stretch autonomously unloading uh trailers trucks shipping containers uh these consist of basically floor stacked cases
Weights up to 50 lb Dimensions up to 90 cm long so they can get pretty big and it gets unloaded onto a conveyor that then would be ingested into the rest of the manufacturing or the logistics facility it’s basically got a perception system an arm a manipulator and a mobile
Base and an independent battery pack to allow it to Traverse autonomously throughout a facility this has been an exciting year for stretch we’ve deployed at multiple customer sites we also have a bunch of exciting new features we launch stable case placement which means that customers get to decide how cases
Are oriented based on down extrem requirements we launched liar box recovery so uh we have a much faster way for stretch to clean up if there happens to be a box on the floor of the truck and we launched multipick which means that stretch can not just pick one box
At a time but up to four which greatly reduces the speed that we can empty it dve in multipick stretch is using its perception system as well as knowledge about its own grippers so stretch has a smart Ripper that allows it to turn on and off different suction cups so it’s
Actually planning based on the actual case geometry and its own ability to plan a trajectory uh grabbing multiple cases at a time and moving multiple cases at a Time Stretch has only been in the market picking in production for just a hair over a year now in that time
We’ve almost tripled our daily active case rate at most customer sites as well as reduced our intervention rate by almost 80% that’s a main focus for us here at Boston Dynamics we hear from the inbound operation managers that if they have to babysit a robot if they need an
Engine here on site to run it they don’t want anything to do with it so we’ve spent the last 12 months making stretch so easy to use that we can train a customer to run that robot in less than a day so we introduced something new at
The show this year um a lot of people are interested in the small operator tablet with our safety officer that’s in the cage we’ve actually put interactive displays here this year that uh people can come up and they can see how easy it is to run stretch how easy it is to use
We can talk through setting up a workflow and getting it started and go exactly through what we would do in a customer training scenario the feedback we’ve received from our customer base to date has been absolutely phenomenal they love the fact that you can deploy a
Stretch in a matter of days and have their Associates running it only a couple days after that which really empowers them to make the most of their technology it’s also providing a critical stop Gap to the labor shortages that are increasingly prevalent in some of these very high physically demanding
Environments and some pretty brutal working conditions especially in the Southeastern sections of the United States during the summer and the robot provides reliable dependable throughput that allows them to shift their labor focuses further into the facility most of our customers are expanding at this point so uh we’re past the pilot stages
And we’re moving into full production uh at almost every single customer facility and Beyond to new facilities as well as launching in Europe this summer which is super exciting for us we have a lot of exciting developments in the work for stretch right now they include the normal progression of continuing to
Increase our performance over time increase our capabilities and handling over time and we’re very excited to be starting to think about launching our future applications of case picking where we’re building multis skew pallets deeper into the warehousing [Applause] facilities
Video “Stretch at MODEX 2024 | Boston Dynamics” was uploaded on 03/13/2024 to Youtube Channel Boston Dynamics