On top of the neck-arm are what look like some visual sensors and a grid of vacuum suction cups that allow the robot to pick up boxes weighing up to 33 pounds and arrange them on pallets. In the video above, two Handle bots move around completely untethered, picking up boxes from a shelf, neatly stacking them onto a pallet, and unloading them onto a conveyor belt. The YouTube description notes this is all done autonomously, and, if you label everything with matrix barcodes (the QR code-looking paper labels in the video), the robots can even mix SKUs and fulfill orders.
Of course, Handle has that trademark Boston Dynamics creep-factor, looking vaguely alive and animal-like. With the backwards knees, long neck, and tail-like rear end, Handle looks a bit like a mechanical ostrich or a high-tech drinking bird toy.
There’s surprisingly little flair in this video—nobody kicks the bird-bot, nor does it do any tricks. It’s just a normal robo-bird day in the shipping center. As usual for Boston Dynamics, these robots seem leagues more capable and advanced than anything else out there, but is there ever a plan to make money doing this? Handle is certainly the most useful looking job-oriented robot the company has ever produced.