Boston Dynamics unveils Stretch Gen 2, a tougher trailer-unloading robot rated at up to 1,000 cases an hour
The company says the redesign draws on more than 100,000 operating hours, cuts 81% of internal cabling and turns a day-long drive swap into about an hour; it gave no price or ship date.
Why it matters
Stretch is one of the few mobile manipulators already working commercially at scale, and the second generation is aimed at uptime rather than new tricks. Boston Dynamics says it studied tens of millions of unloaded boxes to target the most common causes of downtime, and that more servicing can now be done by customers' own teams. The robot also gets a redesigned onboard computer with fleet-wide software updates. Watch for customer deployments and independent throughput figures, since the 1,000-case rate depends on box weight and stacking.
Key facts
- Up to 1,000 cases per hour, depending on load
- Built on data from more than 100,000 operating hours
- 81% of internal cabling removed
- Swerve-drive swap cut from a day to about one hour
- Battery lasts two shifts; 90% charge in about 75 minutes