Milestones
- Stretch launchedMar 2022Complete.
- DHL multi-year agreement for 1,000+ unitsMay 2022Complete.
- Additional DHL agreement for 1,000 more robotsMay 2025Complete.
Most important updates
- Dec 2025
- 13 May 2025
- May 2025
- 11 Sep 2023
- 28 Mar 2022
Current obstacles
- Mixed, crushed and heavy boxesCrushed, shrink-wrapped or tightly packed boxes are hard to grip. Each failure needs a person.
Physics limits
- Air pressure caps suctionA suction cup can never hold more than the air pressure outside it: about 10 N (1 kg) per square centimetre at a perfect vacuum. Porous, wet or torn cardboard leaks and holds far less.
- Reach fights tippingA box held at arm's length twists the robot about its wheels with force times distance. Heavier boxes at longer reach need a heavier, wider base, which a trailer's width limits.
- Identical brown boxes are hard to seeTightly packed cartons of the same colour show almost no visible edge between them. Depth sensors see one flat wall, so the robot must guess where one box ends and the next begins.
How it works
Wheels that move in any direction
A compact wheeled base drives straight, sideways or turns in place, so Stretch rolls into a truck and repositions itself without guide rails.
Seven-joint arm, suction gripper
A long arm ends in a pad of suction cups that grabs boxes up to 23 kg (50 lb) and swings them onto a conveyor.
Camera mast finds each box
A mast of cameras and depth sensors picks out every box in a stacked wall, with no need to know box sizes in advance.
Battery for two shifts
The high-capacity battery lasts over 16 hours, enough to unload trucks for a double shift before recharging.
Update log
Dec 2025
- Minor: PressCommercial
Tue 13 May 2025
- Major: PressCommercial
May 2025
- Minor: PressCommercial
Mon 11 Sep 2023
- Minor: PressCommercial
Tue 30 Aug 2022
- Minor: PressCommercial
Mon 28 Mar 2022
- Major: PressCommercial
About Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics
Atlas humanoid, Spot robot dog, Stretch
Boston Dynamics, founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, pioneered robots that walk and balance. Owned by Hyundai since 2021, it sells Spot and Stretch and began building its electric Atlas humanoid in 2026.
- Production Atlas (CES, Jan 2026): fully electric, 56 degrees of freedom, lifts 50 kg, swaps its own batteries.
- Hyundai is the main customer and plans a factory able to build 30,000 robots a year.
- Spot and Stretch bring real revenue and field data that most humanoid startups lack.
bostondynamics.com (opens bostondynamics.com)Company profile →
- Founded
- 199234 yrs
- Headquarters
- United States
- Status
- Subsidiaryof Hyundai Motor Group
- Valuation
- $21BHyundai Motor Group-ownedMar 2026estimate
- Works in
- RoboticsHumanoids
- Coverage
- 3 programs · 18 updateslatest 18d agochecked 25 Sep
- People
- Marc Raibert (opens en.wikipedia.org)FounderRobert PlayterCEO