Powered by advances in AI, the latest Stretch robot by Hello Robot is charting its own path into the home.
Martinez, CA Wednesday, February 14, 2024 – Today, Hello Robot announced Stretch 3, the third version of their popular open mobile manipulator that heralds a future where versatile robots are in millions of homes. Stretch 3 empowers a growing community of developers to create a future in which friendly robots fold laundry, feed pets, support older adults, and enhance life in new ways. “With Stretch 3, we are taking a real step towards a future with home robots,” says Dr. Aaron Edsinger, Hello Robot cofounder & CEO. “We designed Stretch 3 to help our community leverage recent advances in AI.”
Stretch 3 is priced at $24,950 and is available now on Hello Robot’s website for researchers,
educators, developers, and enthusiasts.
AI is Bringing Robots Home
“Thanks to advances in AI, robots like Stretch are developing faster than expected,” says Edsinger. “A robot autonomously doing laundry was once considered a long term ‘grand challenge’, but is now within reach.”
Stretch 3 provides a platform for embodied AI that makes it easier than ever to collect data from real homes. A dexterous teleoperation tool enables an individual to control one or two robots to perform complex manipulation tasks in homes. Large AI models are easy to use with newly supported off-robot GPUs. The addition of a 3D camera and the DexWrist 3 gripper enable fast and interactive AI-driven manipulation.
Portability Accelerates Progress
A significant barrier for AI-powered home robots is the lack of high-quality robot data. Stretch’s
portability means that AI researchers can easily take Stretch out of the lab. According to Dr.
Charlie Kemp, Hello Robot cofounder & CTO, “Labs aren’t homes and the differences matter.
We need robots in the real world, with real people, doing real tasks.”
Researchers have taken Stretch into real homes to collect training data and test AI models, such as for the Dobb-E and OK, Robot projects. Students have taken robots off-campus to create high-impact projects, such as Stretch with Stretch, which started with students taking Stretch to a physical therapy center.
“Stretch is the only portable yet capable mobile manipulator on the market,” Edsinger says. “If you look at the adoption curve of laptops and cellphones, it is clear that portability is a hugely valuable feature.” Stretch is compact enough to navigate the clutter of real homes and lightweight enough to easily move out of the way like a rolling suitcase. It is so portable, in fact, that Hello Robot shows a video of three Stretch robots being loaded into the back of a compact SUV.
Charting a Path into the Home
With Stretch 3, Hello Robot offers a distinct vision of the future in which robots benefit everyone, including older adults, children, and people with disabilities. “Homes are an inclusive place. To truly succeed in homes, a robot should be made for everyone.”, says Edsinger.
Hello Robot has pioneered a middle way between simple single-purpose robots and complex humanoid robots, showing that robots don’t need to be humanoid to perform a wide variety of compelling tasks in homes. Stretch 3 shows for the first time that two Stretch robots can work together to perform dexterous bimanual tasks in a real home, providing a credible alternative to a distant android future.
But hardware capabilities aren’t enough. These versatile robots will need exciting applications as well. This is where Hello Robot’s unmatched community of developers comes in. Hello Robot’s open platform has attracted pioneers from across the world, including Fortune 500 companies, top-tier research labs, and universities in over 14 countries. Members of the community regularly release open code, data, models, publications, and educational materials, accelerating progress towards a home robot future.
An Invitation to the Future
“Too often, a video offers an exciting glimpse of the future, but the robot isn’t available.” says Dr. Kemp. “Stretch 3 isn’t vaporware. It’s available today! It’s an invitation to join an amazing community creating an inspiring future. It’s also the most fun I’ve ever had as a programmer.”
About Hello Robot
Hello Robot is committed to a future in which robots like Stretch enhance life for everyone. First launched in 2020, Stretch now has one of the world’s largest user communities for indoor mobile manipulation.
Hello Robot was founded in 2017 by experts in human-centric robotics. Aaron Edsinger, Ph.D., was previously Director of Robotics at Google following the acquisition of two of his robotics companies in 2013. Charlie Kemp, Ph.D., was previously a tenured faculty member at Georgia Tech where he conducted research on intelligent robots to assist older adults and people with disabilities in their homes. Drs. Edsinger and Kemp first collaborated while earning their doctorates at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) working on AI for humanoid robots.
Hello Robot has offices in Atlanta, GA, Pittsburgh, PA, and Martinez, CA.