Hello Robot Launches a Sub-$20k Mobile Manipulator Robot Driven by Open Source Python & Arduino Code

Hello Robot, a company founded by former Google robotics director Aaron Edsinger, has unveiled a mobile manipulation robot dubbed the Stretch RE1 — and it's launching it for a fraction of the competition's selling price.

Mobile manipulator robots combine a body capable of moving around without assistance with at least one arm plus, typically, a sensor and vision system. The go-to example is the Willow Garage PR2, a humanoid-style mobile manipulator launched a decade ago which targeted use in the home — but with a $400,000 price tag ensuring it rarely left well-funded research establishments.

Hello Robot's answer to the ageing and expensive PR2 is the Stretch RE1: It's a much simpler, smaller, and lighter robot, but offers all the key features required of a mobile manipulator for under $20,000.

The key feature of Stretch is, as the name implies, a stretchable manipulator arm: In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, company co-founder and former director of robotics at Google Aaron Edsinger explains that the arm is based on one fixed and four mobile telescopic carbon fibre rods driven by a single motor. The arm is lightweight, but can extend for over 1.6' and carry objects weighing up to 3.3lbs.

The gripper, meanwhile, is based on an off-the-shelf tool originally developed for assistive use and purchased from online retail giant Amazon. "I almost didn’t order it, it was such a weird looking thing," co-founder Charlie Kemp says. "But it had great reviews on Amazon, and oh my gosh, it just blew away the other grabbers. And I was like, that’s it. It just works."

Stretch RE1 weighs 51lbs complete with built-in computer system, depth-camera, inertial measurement unit (IMU), LIDAR range finder, microphone array, and tactile sensors, arm, and gripper, and comes pre-calibrated with a Python interface and autonomy demo software — all of which is open source, including the robot's Arduino-based firmware. Stretch also supports the Robot Operating System (ROS), the company has confirmed.

For those who need something other than the universal gripper, Hello Robot has launched the Stretch Tool Share library of open hardware add-on designs — including 3D-printable manipulators.

Full details of the robot can be found on the Hello Robot website, where pricing begins at $17,950 before volume discounts. The source code, meanwhile, is available on GitHub.