Robot Stretch
Nancie Fazzari
Stretch offers predictability for warehouse operations, working continuously and keeping the flow of goods moving. With the ability to move hundreds of cases an hour, Stretch ensures that daily goals are met even as order fulfillment demands soar.
Bring your warehouse into the future without upending your entire business. Stretch is specifically designed to handle cases with efficiency and speed. With a straightforward installation and setup process, our robot can easily supplement your labor resources to keep the flow of goods moving.
Stretch can handle a wide range of package types and sizes, from standard brown to highly graphical, up to 50 pounds. The robot can handle typical container conditions, working its way through neat or messy box configurations alike.
Stretch is a multi-purpose mobile robot designed to tackle a number of material handling tasks, starting with truck and container unloading. It's untethered and has a pallet-sized footprint, making it easy to deploy within existing warehouse infrastructure.
In 2021, Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm famous for its dancing quadrupeds and jumping humanoids, introduced a more tame robot. Stretch is the company's first warehouse-specific robot, capable of autonomously unloading boxes from a truck and placing them onto a conveyor belt. Stretch is part of the Boston Dynamics' strategy to continue building innovative robots while also being able to commercialize its creations, staring with applications in logistics and material handling. Boston Dynamics says Stretch was originally developed because of interest received from a video of the company's Atlas humanoid moving boxes. Stretch is a descendent of Handle, a previous research robot that Boston Dynamics developed by combining wheels with legs.
Works up to two full shifts on a single battery charge. Powerful vacuum gripper that unloads hundreds of cases per hour and a range of package types and sizes. Advanced vision system detects surroundings to autonomously recover fallen packages. Requires no pre-programming of SKU numbers or information on box sizes. Pallet-sized footprint and untethered by power or air lines. Can be installed and ready to work within existing warehouse infrastructure in five days or less.
Or two! You may have noticed that some of the Stretch 3 videos have two robots in them, collaborating with each other. This is not yet autonomous, but with two robots, a single human (or a pair of humans) can teleoperate them as if they were effectively a single two-armed robot:
Hi @Robot_Lover, if you are looking for classification labels of objects in the environment, Stretch ships with stretch_deep_perception, a ROS package with neural networks that can detect and classify objects that the Realsense camera sees. You can find more information in the README.
If you are looking for object detection for mapping and path planning, the ROS standard is the navigation stack, which is what stretch_navigation is built upon. Additionally, we have developed stretch_funmap, which utilizes the Realsense camera and other sensors on Stretch for object detection, navigation, and to form a depth map of its environment. Please review the README for instructions on how to use the package.
I would greatly appreciate response on any of these so we could try and get stretch_funmap working past this step. For reference, this is another message that keeps getting displayed on the terminal continuously post head-scan, in case this is helpful.
Mobile robotic stretch wrappers are ideal for both standard and non-standard size pallet loads. The machine works by placing the guide tire against the pallet or if necessary against the load. To position the guide wheel, use the drive button on the handle of the machine until it is properly aligned. It is important to make sure the guide arm is angled towards the direction of the machine travel. Once in place with the film tied, you can start an automatic wrap cycle. The machine will begin to drive around the pallet applying film according to your preset program.
Mobile stretch wrap machines are ideal for smaller packing and shipping areas. The Handle It Model 3000 may look small, but it packs just as many features as its bigger counterparts, including the ability to wrap up to 200 pallets on a single charge!
R-Connect, available for this portable stretch wrapper, is our latest innovation. It was developed to provide usage and performance data via the cloud, enabling you to meet Industry 4.0 demands by putting performance monitoring and optimization at your fingertips. Utilization drastically reduces downtime by giving you informational transparency, allowing you to connect with your machines remotely to investigate alarms, adjust parameters, and respond promptly. This Industry 4.0 innovation empowers you with actionable insight to continuously improve performance, cost savings, and automation.
Stretch operates for more than a full shift on a single charge or up to 16 hours with a high-capacity battery option. With a powerful vacuum gripper and advanced vision system, the robot handles a variety of package types up to 50 pounds, requires no SKU number pre-programming or box size information, and can autonomously recover any packages that shift or fall during the unloading process.
Unitizing Packaging Machines and Pallet Wrapping Robots from Mr. Shrinkwrap provide advanced solutions for securing and stabilizing palletized loads. Our state-of-the-art equipment is designed to enhance efficiency and ensure the integrity of your shipments. These machines are perfect for high-volume operations in industries like logistics, manufacturing, and warehousing, offering reliable performance and superior wrapping quality.
As the trusted source for shrink wrap, supplies, and equipment, Mr. Shrinkwrap offers products from top manufacturers, including Ripack and Shrinkfast. Our unitizing packaging machines and pallet wrapping robots feature robust construction, user-friendly interfaces, and advanced technology, making them easy to operate and maintain. They ensure tight, consistent wraps that protect products during transport and storage, reducing damage and loss.
Mr. Shrinkwrap is a leading distributor of shrink wrap films, installation supplies, and shrink wrap equipment, with a dedicated team available to take your order at any time of day. If you would like to place an order over the phone or have questions for us, give us a call at 800-847-5290.
The pallet wrapper CSM 250 is a flexible mobile film wrapper with a pre-stretching system. The wrapper can be moved to any desired location by means of a handle with operating buttons. Due to its flexible nature, the wrapper can handle any package in size. The wrapper is suitable for heavy objects and loads with large dimensions.
The CSM 250 is equipped with a digital control panel that allows the user to change various settings and set custom wrapping cycle programs in an easy and functional way. The CSM 250 pre-stretches the film (up to 250%) through a motorized pre-stretch system. On one battery charge the machine can wrap up to 120 pallets and after 10 minutes of inactivity the machine switches off automatically. This makes the CSM 250 low in energy consumption.
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.
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.
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.
Brianna Wessling is an Associate Editor, Robotics, WTWH Media. She joined WTWH Media in November 2021, and is a recent graduate from the University of Kansas. She can be reached at bwes...@wtwhmedia.com
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This Robopac S7 portable semi-automatic stretch wrapper can wrap and stabilize palletized loads of any shape, size, and weight. Robopac's CUBE Technology allows for proper load stabilization which will reduce film usage by 30% to 55%, improve load containment, and reduce product damage. The portability of the Robot S7 improves productivity by as much as 25% and provides maximum wrapping flexibility for unstable and oversized loads.
So, in addition to its design, Stretch brings a whole new utilitarian vibe to robotics, according to Kemp, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emorhy, and a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (both at Georgia Tech).
Previous robots with comparable capabilities have been prohibitively expensive, awkwardly large, complex machines. At just over 50 pounds, Stretch is a highly-capable mobile manipulator that can be easily maneuvered in living or work environments, and be transported in the back of a car. The device is also designed as a cost-effective cutting-edge tool for other researchers, according to Kemp, who owns equity in and works for Hello Robot, which is commercializing robotic assistance technologies developed in his lab.
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