Robert Playter

So it's wheels on legs.

We always wanted to build wheels on legs.

It had a tail and it had this arm and they're all moving simultaneously and in coordination to maintain balance because we had figured out the mathematics of doing this momentum control, how to maintain that balance.

And so part of the reason why we built this two-legged robot was we had figured this thing out

We wanted to see it in this kind of machine.

And we thought maybe this kind of machine would be good in a warehouse.

And so we built it.

And it's a beautiful machine.

It moves in a graceful way, like nothing else we've built, but it wasn't the right machine for a logistics application.

We decided it was too slow and couldn't pick boxes fast enough, basically.

But it just wasn't efficient enough.

So he let it go.

But I think we'll come back to that machine eventually.

Basically, we made a hard decision, and this was really kind of a hard-nosed business decision.

It indicated us not doing it just for the beauty of the mathematics or the curiosity, but no, we actually need to build a business that can make money in the long run.

And so we ended up building stretch, which has a big heavy base with a giant battery in the base of it that allows it to run for two, two shifts, 16 hours worth of operation.

And that big battery is sort of helps it stay balanced, right?

So you can move a 50 pound box around with its arm and not tip over.

It's omnidirectional.

It can move in any direction.