[imagesource: Boston Dynamics]

Boston Dynamics typically gets mixed reactions when it releases videos of its various creations, ranging from awe at the technical genius of it all to horror at something that looks like it wouldn’t be out of place in a film about a machine-driven apocalypse.

For 28 years it’s been perfecting robotics, but recently needed to increase its cash flow, so it put Spot on the market, a robotic dog that can trot around facilities for inspections, comes complete with an arm extension that allows it to open doors, and can even do remote manipulation.

Spot even tried its hand at sheep herding.

Feel safe? Yeah, me neither.

While we might not be looking at that aforementioned apocalypse (for now), there’s a more immediate issue that humans could be facing as robotics becomes more advanced.

They’re coming for our jobs.

Via Mashable, the company recently unveiled ‘Stretch’, designed to work on factory floors, with a single arm sitting on its frame.

Stretch, as you shall see in the video below, can unload trucks, build pallets and orders, and does it all in record time.

In the long run, it would be cheaper and more efficient than human labour.

“Warehouses are struggling to meet rapidly increasing demand as the world relies more on just-in-time delivery of goods,” said Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics.

“Mobile robots enable the flexible movement of materials and improve working conditions for employees. Stretch combines Boston Dynamics’ advancements in mobility, perception and manipulation to tackle the most challenging, injury-prone case-handling tasks, and we’re excited to see it put to work.”

By ’employees’ he means the ones that won’t be made redundant when Stretch comes onto the scene.

If you’re keen on a more technical breakdown of what Stretch does, Ars Technica gathered a few specs.

The robot is mounted on a big box to increase stability and weighs roughly 1 200kg.

Most warehouses are designed around the 48×40-inch dimensions of a pallet, so the base of Stretch just happens to have a 48×40-inch footprint, and it can fit anywhere a pallet fits.

Wheels in each corner of the box, all with independent steering, let Stretch move in any direction, including side to side or rotating in place.

The giant base also means that Stretch can hold a massive battery, giving it enough power to make it through an eight-hour shift, or up to 16 hours with “the extended range option”. That’s twice the work and no more overtime pay.

Stretch can also “see” what it’s doing, via a mast that sits on the same rotating base as the arm and houses most of the robot’s sensors.

The mast is home to 2D and depth sensors, giving Stretch a high-up view of its surroundings.

Stretch wasn’t the first robot in line for a job at a factory. You can read more about Handle here.

I’ll leave you with a rare look inside Boston Dynamics’ robotics factory if you’d like a glimpse of its factory floor:

[source:mashable&arstechnica]