The Updated Handle From Boston Dynamics

Back in 2017, Boston Dynamics unveiled the first version of Handle. Although it had legs with what looked like knees bent backward, it also had wheels for its feet. The combination of legs and wheels made it very versatile and it was the first robot of its kind. The first version was humanoid, and it could do all kinds of tricks, including jumping as high as 4 foot in the air. Just by rolling along on its ‘feet’, Handle was able to achieve a top speed of 9 mph and the humanoid design made it seem a friendly bot. At the time, Boston Dynamics said on their website ‘Wheels are fast and efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere. By combining wheels and legs, Handle has the best of both worlds’. Now they have unveiled an updated Handle.

The Updated Handle

The updated Handle is no longer humanoid and looks more like a bird than a person. It still has its legs with wheels for feet and backward bending knees, but its two arms have been replaced with one long one at the top of the robot. This gives the appearance of being a neck rather than an arm. The original Handle has a top-heavy design, but this latest version has a lot of its mass at the rear. This is so that it acts as a counterweight when the robot is lifting or moving things around.
It is now able to lift boxes as heavy as 33 pounds. It will move them from one place to another and stack them perfectly. To achieve this ability, Handle has been fitted with some mor3e visual sensors and some suction cups. This version was unveiled in a video that shows two bots moving around freely, picking up boxes from a shelf, loading them onto pallets and then unloading them onto a conveyor belt. Boston Dynamics say that if everything has matrix barcodes, the robots can mix SKUs and fulfill orders.

The Mechanical Ostrich

This bot has been likened to a mechanical ostrich because of its long neck and backward legs. It is one of the few videos from Boston Dynamics where there are no tricks or someone knocking the bot over to show how well it recovers. This seems to be a working bot, and it can do the job very well. As with all robots from them, it seems to be more advanced than most other robots on the market. However, they never seem to have a commercial aspect of their robots in mind, although there is no doubt that this version of Handle would be a success if they were looking to make money from it.