Robots Handle heavy lifting

Handle robot. © Boston Dynamics.

Two years ago, Boston Dynamics, now owned by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, unveiled its impressive Handle, a wheeled two-legged robot. Today, the company published a video showing Handles working in a traditional warehouse: one Handle takes packages weighing 5 kg from shelves and carefully places them on a pallet, while another takes them off a pallet to deposit them on a conveyor belt. The video shows that the Handle has evolved over the last two years: its arms have been replaced with suction devices able to lift boxes of up to 15 kg. The dexterity, speed and balance of the robots are impressive.

⇨ TechCrunch, “Boston Dynamics puts its wheeled-robot Handle to work in a warehouse.”