{"id":2832,"date":"2019-04-09T16:25:54","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T16:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/?p=2832"},"modified":"2019-04-09T16:25:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T16:25:54","slug":"boston-dynamics-logistics-handle-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/boston-dynamics-logistics-handle-robot\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Dynamics Presents a \u201cLogistics\u201d Version of their \u201cHandle Robot\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Dynamics, the American robotic systems developer that creates a stir on YouTube every time they present a new contraption is back again, and this time they have something for the logistics sector. The Massachusetts-based company was more focused on military and &#8220;search and rescue&#8221; operations in the previous years, but since 2017 when they were acquired by SoftBank, they have turned their attention to more application-focused systems that have a broader and more direct deployment potential.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, they have heavily modified their \u201cHandle\u201d robot, which was their only one to sport a combination of legs and wheels, basing its operation on a self-balancing system similar to those used in \u201choverboard\u201d scooters. The Handle has now been equipped with a four-axis arm that grabs boxes by using a special suction cup gripper unit. A force sensor is also incorporated so that the robot can determine the balance between firmly holding and not destroying the cartons. Finally, Handle now uses an advanced vision system that allows it to \u201csee\u201d SKU codes and to seamlessly navigate around the mazy paths of a warehouse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"flex-video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5iV_hB08Uns?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The performance numbers are the following:<\/p>\n<p>Top Speed \u2013 9 m\/h (14.5 km\/h)<br \/>\nMax Payload Weight \u2013 33 lb (15 kg)<br \/>\nMax Payload Weight of Special Configuration (two arms) \u2013 45 kg<br \/>\nMax Height Reach \u2013 1.7 meters<br \/>\nRobot Weight \u2013 105 kg<\/p>\n<p>So, is it likely that we\u2019ll see these robots in warehouses soon? The answer is probably not, unless logistics operators invest in a purely robotized environment. Simply put, the \u201cHandle\u201d has not been developed to take human safety into account when working, and implementing such a capability would be especially hard to do so due to the nature and characteristics of the systems that the robot deploys. After all, we\u2019ve seen warehouse robot implementations that are much safer, like Amazon\u2019s Kiva and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/alibabas-new-g-plus-autonomous-robot-uses-lidar-to-deliver-packages\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alibaba\u2019s Cainiao bots<\/a>, that are used in the thousands already. Handle has its own advantages over these robots though, so only time will tell how far automated pallet stackers can reach.<\/p>\n<p><em>Image Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostondynamics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Boston Dynamics<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Dynamics, the American robotic systems developer that creates a stir on YouTube every time they present a new contraption is back again, and this time they have something for the logistics sector. The Massachusetts-based company was more focused on military and &#8220;search and rescue&#8221; operations in the previous years, but since 2017 when they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,59,56],"tags":[1021,1022],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2838,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832\/revisions\/2838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}