Boston Dynamics unveils Stretch Gen 2 for trailer unloading

Boston Dynamics unveiled Stretch Gen 2 on 2026-11-03. Its announcement describes a redesign aimed at keeping the trailer-unloading robot working and making repairs simpler. For parcel operations, retailers and third-party logistics providers unloading trailers and containers, the practical question is how those changes fit their dock operations.

What changed in the robot

The redesign uses automotive-grade connectors and removes 81 percent of internal cabling. The gripper gains new valves and more precise sensing, while continuous-rotation joints travel beyond 360° to avoid hard stops. A lower, recessed emergency stop and revised exterior panels aim to reduce interruptions caused by falling cases.

Boston Dynamics says a swerve-drive swap takes about 1 hour instead of a full day. Onboard diagnostics, maintenance tools and standardized fasteners are intended to simplify servicing. Redesigned onboard computing supports regular software updates to case detection, motion planning, picking strategies and world modeling.

Throughput, battery and dark trailers

The company reports up to 1000 cases per hour, depending heavily on case weight and how cases are stacked; multipick enables peak rates. That is a conditional maximum, so a site assessment should use the actual case mix and trailer conditions.

Boston Dynamics states that the battery lasts 2 shifts and that a fast charger reaches 90 percent in about 75 minutes. It does not translate shifts into a fixed number of hours. Onboard lighting supports work in dark trailers, and a pre-trained vision system detects most packages without programming. The product page lists cases weighing up to 50 pounds.

Evidence and a buying conversation

Boston Dynamics says the redesign draws on more than 100,000 operating hours and tens of millions of boxes handled by first-generation deployments. These are the manufacturer's figures, rather than an independent performance study or results from the new generation.

The manufacturer publishes no price. See Stretch's robot profile and the Boston Dynamics catalog, or request a quote or an introduction through RoboHub with your unloading requirements. Hello Robot's Stretch 4 is an unrelated mobile manipulator from a different manufacturer.