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Robotics

Boston Dynamics' Logistics Robot Is Available For Purchase 30

Posted by BeauHD from the your-new-best-friend dept.
Stretch, a logistics robot from Boston Dynamics that's capable of moving boxes and unloading cargo, is now on sale for anyone who wants to purchase one. Though, as TechCrunch notes, "deliveries are not expected until 2023 and 2024." From the report: The company predictably cites ongoing labor issues as a key driver in interest around the new robot. "Labor shortages and supply chain snags continue to create challenges in keeping the flow of goods moving," says CEO Robert Playter. "Stretch makes logistics operations more efficient and predictable, and it improves safety by taking on one of the most physically demanding jobs in the warehouse. Many of our early adopter customers have already committed to deploying the robot at scale, so we are excited Stretch will soon be put to work more broadly, helping retailers and logistics companies handle the continued surging demand for goods."
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Boston Dynamics' Logistics Robot Is Available For Purchase More

Boston Dynamics' Logistics Robot Is Available For Purchase

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  • I've seen videos of these Boston Dynamics-like robots implementing quarantine in Shanghai. I'm preeeetty sure we've overcome nationalism in those instances in which it benefits us.

    That selfish gene is a motherfucker.

  • But screw it, better to buy now than regret later. In for one.

    Maybe I'll paint it in camo and program it to siphon gas from the neighbor's cars.

    • Maybe I'll paint it in camo and program it to siphon gas from the neighbor's cars.

      Which makes me wonder . . . will car battery electricity theft become a new crime problem . . . ?

      • Which makes me wonder . . . will car battery electricity theft become a new crime problem . . . ?

        ... by robots?

    • "Maybe I'll paint it in camo and program it to siphon gas from the neighbor's cars."

      I'm sure it can fold T-shirts.
      Or put 5 grams of coke in a small container...

  • Well, I guess here comes the new wave of automation. It started with the self-service kiosks, then the self-check out lanes, and now we'll have robots replace more mundane, low-skill, highly repetitive manual tasks. I guess it's time to go back to school and learn how to code and pull myself up by the bootstrap and learn bootstrap.

    • what he's proposed is to slash all gov't programs in exchange for a single flat check. That won't solve the problem. All that'll happen is that market consolidation will lead to massive inflation (like it's doing now) and that money will go straight to the top.

      As the saying goes, for every sufficiently complex problem there is an answer that is simple, elegant and wrong.

      Simple answers like Yang's don't work. We need a better, more thoughtful and holistic approach.
      • Yangs universal income allows people to pivot. e.g. not trip over themselves to get a new job a month after the got canned by the old. take your time and retool. then learn robotics or whatever. dont think so small.
        • it just gives an excuse to slash gov't programs to help the working class, the same programs the boomers used to join the middle class. Stuff like federal housing projects (everything thinks of those big apartment complexes we built, but the feds did the real work building the suburbs), paying for college tuition (it was done with subsidies to the colleges instead of checks to students so boomers pretend they "worked their way through college") and massive food subsidies that, again, are done on the backend
          • Well we already have a universal base income but it only lasts for 6, sometimes 9 months.
            its called health insurance. I use that thing judiciously. It lets me pop off at the mouth at work if and when i please.
            i dont have to show up to the scrum having cards delt to me i can deal because if i get fired theres a nice 6 month paid vacation waiting for me.
            so therefore when im on the job i do what i feel is right and so i grow. and when im not working i spend time studying and building on the things
            i was al

    • "Well, I guess here comes the new wave of automation. It started with the self-service kiosks, then the self-check out lanes, and now we'll have robots replace more mundane, low-skill, highly repetitive manual tasks."

      Where TF is the blowjob kiosk?

      It can't be rare earths, goddammit, get on with it!

  • I live in Russia (Score:3)

    by thesjaakspoiler ( 4782965 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2022 @11:02PM (#62404433)

    so I guess that's a 'NO'?

  • Boston Dynamics is always chasing a problem that they think a robot can fix. This is just another example.

    The key issues with logistics right now is not labor shortages. It's LAND. specifically good land around a good port that a ship can pull up to and be unloaded. The port congestion we're seeing is partially driven by labor problems and COVID, but msotly driven by printing money going to average people resulting in greater consumer spending. That's fine, but the ports can't handle the extra load

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Arethan ( 223197 )

      This only holds water because it assumes consumer spending must directly increase import volume. Increase US manufacturing to serve the rise of consumerism and this shipyard bottleneck you describe begins to subside.

      But, yes, we could likely use a few additional ports to increase the general capacity, nonetheless.

      • The problem is, you can't just "make" a port. You need a combination of geographical factors, mainly a harbor to provide relatively calm waters, depth to that harbor to handle a fully loaded cargo vessel (the deepest a ship draught is when fully loaded can be as much as 16.5 meters), and sufficient flat land around that port to place the port infrastructure be it cranes, warehouses/laydown space for containers to pre-stage, and highways and railyards to pick up teh containers and get them out of there.

        Th

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Arethan ( 223197 )

          The problem is, you can't just "make" a port

          Disagree. Your list of requirements appears valid, but none of those items could not be artificially constructed given time and money. How badly do you want another port?

          Only bad enough that you're willing to only build where it is cheap and easy?

          Or badly enough that you're ready to construct a bay that didn't naturally occur, dredge the waterway to make it deep enough for large ship drafts, and pour thick concrete pads atop a foundation driven to bedrock?

    • The root of the problem though is speed and not space. The systems in the US are designed to be labor intensive; why else would you require double- and triple-handling of a container (as the rule rather than the exception)?

      The port business could use a shake-up. It would be interesting to see what at-sea unloading and transfer to RO-RO could do.

    • it's a labor one. Specifically you're replacing expensive human beings that are increasingly demanding enough money to eat _and_ drink (lazy blighters) and replacing them with robots.

      This is about cost reduction by eliminating jobs. But you can't say that out loud. It would make people question what's going to happen when all those jobs go away.

    • Land is a buffer in the situation you describe.

      Almost never is merely increasing the size of the buffer a solution for the core issue.

    • robots will become cheaper and youll have them in your home making you stuff and growing you stuff and the port will be your garage.
  • “Labor shortages and supply chain snags continue to create challenges in keeping the flow of goods moving,” Yeah, labor shortages.. sounds about right. More like "People not wanting to work for pennies in a soul killing environment"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      That is "labor shortage". The way you describe it is just a lot more honest. In capitalism, there is no difference between the two though. Demand is there, but not enough supply, hence "shortage". Of course, in capitalism, you can just offer to pay more to fix that problem, but greed (which is a very capitalist thing, there euphemistically called "profit maximization") is opposed to that.

      Hence robots will be used were robots are cheaper. Of course, that "cheaper" is a localized assessment. For a whole socie

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