DHL Group, a world chief in logistics, is increasing its already robust relationship with Boston Dynamics. By a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), DHL plans to deploy 1,000+ further Stretch robots from Boston Dynamics by 2030. The businesses are additionally trying to broaden the kinds of purposes Stretch is used for past container unloading.
DHL and Boston Dynamics have been working collectively since 2018. DHL first deployed Stretch in North America in 2023. The robotic has additionally been deployed by DHL in the UK and Europe, reaching unloading charges of as much as 700 circumstances per hour.
DHL mentioned it plans to additional combine Stretch into its operations. A key space of improvement is case selecting, which DHL identified is without doubt one of the most labor-intensive actions inside its provide chain.
“We’ll work collectively to prioritize the appliance improvement of cell case selecting in addition to discover different synergies throughout DHL’s divisions,” a Boston Dynamics spokesperson advised The Robotic Report. Watch the video under for examples of cell case selecting purposes for Stretch.
DHL mentioned it has invested greater than €1 billion in automation inside its contract logistics division during the last three years. The corporate mentioned it has deployed greater than 7,500 robots throughout its international community. AutoStore, Fox Robotics, Geek+, and Locus Robotics are a number of the different notable robotics firms DHL works with.
In June 2024, DHL introduced it surpassed 500 million picks with Locus’ autonomous cell robots alone. It took DHL 2.5 years to achieve the primary 10 million picks with the LocusBots and 28 months to finish the following 100 million picks. Remarkably, the final 100 million picks took simply 154 days.
“By our Accelerated Digitalization agenda, we’re dedicated to maximizing the affect of robotics and automation throughout all our operations and enterprise models,” mentioned Sally Miller, international CIO of DHL Provide Chain. “It’s a basic shift that’s reshaping how we function and elevate service for our clients. By this expanded partnership with Boston Dynamics, DHL will take a extra energetic function in shaping and directing robotics improvement alongside key companions, specializing in constructing extra resilient, responsive and smarter options that tackle the distinctive challenges of our firm. Collectively, we’re setting new requirements for the logistics trade.”
DHL mentioned greater than 90% of its warehouses worldwide use at the very least one type of automation or digitalization. Different firms that make robots to unload containers embrace Contoro Robotics, Dexterity, Mujin, Pickle Robots, Slip Robotics, and XYZ Robotics.
“We’re proud to proceed strengthening our collaboration with DHL Group,” mentioned Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter. “Our groups have been on a journey of innovation collectively to create a sensible and efficient warehouse robotics answer, and that is the pure subsequent step in what has been a superb relationship. Stretch is ideally suited to be the primary multi-use case, field selecting robotic that may meet the varied wants of DHL. Collectively we’re striving to set an instance of sensible management of the fashionable provide chain.”
Boston Dynamics continues to scale
As soon as primarily referred to as a cutting-edge analysis and improvement outfit, Boston Dynamics is more and more scaling its industrial robots. Throughout his keynote on the Robotics Summit & Expo, CTO Aaron Saunders mentioned there are 2,000+ Spot quadrupeds working all over the world. It’s now beginning to scale Stretch with DHL.
However Boston Dynamics’ largest buyer may very well be its proprietor, Hyundai. In 2021, Hyundai acquired Boston Dynamics from SoftBank for $880 million.
Hyundai mentioned in April 2025 it is going to make investments $21 billion within the U.S., together with a $6 billion funding to drive innovation and broaden strategic partnerships with U.S. firms. It mentioned a part of this funding will likely be shopping for “tens of hundreds” of robots, some share of which will likely be from Boston Dynamics. Hyundai is already deploying Spot for industrial inspection and predictive upkeep at its services.
The automaker seems to be most , nonetheless, in Boston Dynamics’ new electrical Atlas humanoid, which Saunders mentioned at size throughout his keynote. Hyundai plans to begin testing Atlas for half sequencing duties later this yr.
“Boston Dynamics and robotics AI will play an important function in reaching the group’s purpose,” said Jaehoon Chang, vice chair of Hyundai Motor Group. “Bodily AI and humanoid robots will rework our enterprise panorama to the following degree. By our collaboration, we are going to expedite the method to attain management within the robotics trade.”
