Hello Robot’s Stretch 3 Gets New Upgrades Inspired by Community Feedback

In its commitment to integrating practical utility, affordability, reliability, and expansiveness into its innovations, Hello Robot unveils Stretch 3 with a comprehensive array of new enhancements and upgrades. Such upgrades include a dexterous wrist kit as a standard feature, an Intel Realsense D405 camera, and broader applicability features as a versatile mobile manipulator.

Aaron Edsinger, Hello Robot’s co-founder and CEO, underscores the pivotal role of community feedback in shaping Stretch’s evolution. The decision to include the dexterous wrist as a standard component was spurred by overwhelming demand, underscoring the company’s responsiveness to user needs.

“When we launched, we didn’t have a dexterous wrist at the end as standard, because we were trying to start with truly the minimum viable product, and what we found is that almost every order was adding the dexterous wrist, and by actually having it come in standard, we’ve been able to devote more attention to it and make it a much more robust and capable system”, adds CTO and cofounder Charlie Kemp.

Hello Robot has also designed Stretch 3 into a versatile mobile manipulator poised for integration into domestic settings. Highlighting the Stretcher 3’s portability and compact design, the robot can help in facilitating real-world data collection essential for machine learning advancements as it is easily able to integrate into various settings and homes.

This is an upgrade or rather an extension of the previous Stretch model of Hello Robot wherein the public viewed the robot as more of a helping hand for older adults or people with disabilities. Kemp adds, “It’s not just for older adults or people with disabilities. We want a robot that can be beneficial for everyone. Our vision, and what we believe will really happen, whether it’s us or someone else, is that there is going to be a versatile, general-purpose home robot. Right now, clearly, our market is not yet consumers in the home. But that’s where we want to go.”

Edsinger reports that NYU students have been taking Stretch into tens of homes around New York. He says, “They carried one up a four-story walk-up. This enables real in-home data collection. And this is where home robots will start to happen—when you can have hundreds of these out there in homes collecting data for machine learning.”

With the portability upgrade of Stretch 3, not only can this robot gain new data inside the homes of people but it also makes this mobile manipulator accessible for many.

To keep Stretch 3 portable and mobile, Hello Robot decided to make the robot less “humanoid” and more focused on keeping a simple design. One can opt to purchase just one Stretch 3 and have one “working arm” to perform tasks or get two robots and combine them to form “two arms” similar to a human’s. Nonetheless, this simple design is effective in keeping Stretch easy to transport and keep inside one’s home. Not to mention, it also keeps the robot more affordable.

Although Stretch 3 is priced at $24,950, this is fairly more affordable compared to other robots in the market that provide the same features. Overall, the upgrades of Stretch 3 make it a compelling purchase and the integration of community feedback is a good starting point for what’s to come for this mobile manipulator.