What Hello Robot Builds

Hello Robot builds the Stretch line of mobile manipulators, which are lightweight robots designed for indoor manipulation and navigation. The company focuses on service and assistive automation, including applications in elder care, physical rehabilitation support, and research environments. Stretch departs from industrial articulated arms by using a single vertical lift column paired with a horizontal telescoping arm mounted on a compact differential-drive wheeled base. This kinematic design reduces weight to around twenty-five kilograms, allowing the machine to navigate residential doorways and domestic spaces safely around humans. Hello Robot sells its hardware directly to university research laboratories, commercial developers, and healthcare institutions. The commercial model centers on direct hardware sales, extended warranty packages, and developer support tiers. The company provides open-source software libraries based on the Robot Operating System (ROS) and ROS 2, which allows buyers to deploy custom manipulation models without paying mandatory recurring software subscriptions. Hello Robot also supports teleoperation interfaces that enable operators to control the robot remotely via standard web browsers.

Hello Robot Products and Models

These are the Hello Robot models a buyer is most likely to be evaluating, and what each one actually does.

  • Stretch 3 — Stretch 3 is the current shipping flagship mobile manipulator from Hello Robot. The robot features a compact footprint, a telescoping arm with a reach extending across standard tables, and a lightweight gripper that handles small household objects like cups and utensils. It includes integrated RGB-D cameras on a pan-tilt head, which stream color and depth data so operators or navigation algorithms can map rooms and locate grasp targets. The robot weighs approximately 24.5 kg, which makes it safe to run near people and easy for one person to move between rooms.
  • Stretch RE2 (Research Edition) — Stretch RE2 is an earlier generation of the Stretch mobile manipulator tailored for academic research and software prototyping. It features an open payload mount on the head and wrist, allowing researchers to attach custom sensors, microphones, or specialized end-effectors to evaluate novel manipulation algorithms. The system ships with open Python interfaces and ROS support, which lets researchers run navigation and grasping scripts directly on the onboard computer without developing custom low-level motor drivers.
  • Stretch Assistive Teleoperation Kit — The Stretch Assistive Teleoperation Kit is a software and hardware accessory package for remote caregiving and accessibility tasks. It provides a browser-based remote driving interface paired with custom 3D-printed grasping tools, which enables individuals with motor impairments to pick up dropped items, open cabinet doors, and operate light switches independently. The tool mount attaches to the standard Stretch wrist, allowing fast tool swapping without re-calibrating the joint encoders.

Hello Robot Pricing and Availability

Hello Robot does not publicly publish fixed commercial catalog prices for individual retail buyers, but standard research configurations for the Stretch platform typically sell in the range of twenty-five thousand to thirty-five thousand dollars depending on warranty options and included sensor packages. The company operates primarily on a direct capital expenditure purchase model, though third-party academic equipment leasing arrangements are sometimes accommodated. Prospective buyers must request a direct quotation from Hello Robot to establish precise pricing based on target sensors, tool kits, and shipping logistics. Lead times generally vary from four to twelve weeks depending on manufacturing batch cycles. Hello Robot ships primarily to North America, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and select research institutions across the Asia-Pacific region. The true cost of ownership includes the purchase price, replacement drive belts, backup battery packs, and the internal engineering labor required to train manipulation models or build custom autonomous routines.

Who Hello Robot Products Are For

Hello Robot designs its Stretch platform primarily for robotics researchers, assistive care developers, and healthcare operators who need an affordable, human-scale mobile manipulator for indoor tasks. It suits engineering teams building service automation for assisted living facilities, residential care settings, and domestic chore research where heavy industrial robots are too dangerous or cumbersome. The platform works well for operations that require light physical intervention, such as retrieving dropped objects, opening doors, turning knobs, and delivering medication trays. Hello Robot is not intended for heavy industrial manufacturing, high-speed warehouse pallet transport, or outdoor field navigation. Operations that require payloads exceeding two kilograms at full horizontal extension must look elsewhere, as the arm is deliberately lightweight to ensure collaborative safety. High-throughput logistics operations with rugged flooring should instead evaluate industrial autonomous mobile robots or heavy articulated arms.

  • Verify the payload limits of the telescoping arm, which tops out around 1.5 to 2 kg at maximum horizontal reach, limiting the robot to light objects.
  • Assess the floor transitions in your facility, because the small wheels and low clearance struggle with deep carpets, thresholds over 1 cm, and outdoor terrain.
  • Evaluate internal software capability, since deploying autonomous manipulation requires engineering expertise in ROS, ROS 2, Python, or machine learning pipelines.
  • Review local safety standards for collaborative service robotics, ensuring that collision mitigation policies comply with facility safety regulations before running untethered around vulnerable residents.
  • Confirm parts availability and turnaround times for proprietary wear items like telescoping belts, gripper cables, and pan-tilt motor modules.
  • Measure continuous battery runtimes under your target workload, as continuous arm movement and onboard sensor processing can deplete the battery in two to five hours.

Hello Robot Alternatives

Robots and vendors a buyer typically cross-shops against Hello Robot.

  • Diligent Robotics — Diligent Robotics produces Moxi, an autonomous mobile manipulator designed specifically for hospital logistics and nursing support. Unlike Stretch, Moxi is a fully turnkey commercial medical service robot that handles hospital deliveries out of the box, but it is substantially larger, heavier, and significantly more expensive than Hello Robot platforms.
  • PAL Robotics — PAL Robotics manufactures the TIAGo service robot, a widely used mobile manipulation research platform. TIAGo offers a higher payload capacity and a full multi-joint articulated arm, but it costs considerably more and requires a larger physical footprint than the compact telescoping mast on Stretch.
  • Pollen Robotics — Pollen Robotics builds Reachy, an open-source expressive humanoid torso designed for teleoperation and interactive service research. Reachy focuses on dual-arm manipulation and expressive social interaction, whereas Stretch combines a single functional arm with an integrated mobile base for room-to-room navigation.
  • Aethon — Aethon manufactures the TUG autonomous mobile robot, which automates supply cart hauling in clinical environments. While Aethon provides robust commercial delivery for institutional healthcare, its robots lack manipulation arms and cannot grasp objects, open doors, or assist patients directly like Stretch.

Recent news

A dated log of developments, each tied to its primary source.

  • 2026-10 — Hello Robot has been awarded $3 million to further develop its Stretch mobile manipulator robot for elder care applications. University & school robots
  • Progress on commercial elder care trials funded by federal grants, which will demonstrate whether Stretch can operate reliably in active care homes without full-time teleoperators.
  • Software updates integrating foundation manipulation models and vision-language-action policies into Stretch's open-source ROS 2 repository.
  • Hardware updates addressing payload limitations or introducing all-terrain wheel modules for rougher domestic surfaces.

Bottom Line

Hello Robot provides a practical, low-inertia mobile manipulator that fills the gap between static research arms and expensive industrial service robots. Its lightweight telescoping design makes it well-suited for indoor elder care research, assistive task development, and university laboratories. Operators must account for its modest payload capacity and flat-floor requirement before purchasing. For teams developing assistive indoor applications, Stretch offers a mature, open software stack at an accessible price point.

Explore our service robotics directory to compare mobile manipulators and assistive care platforms.

FAQs

What is the maximum payload capacity of the Hello Robot Stretch arm?

The maximum payload capacity of the Stretch telescoping arm is approximately 1.5 to 2 kilograms depending on extension distance. At full horizontal reach, lifting capacity decreases to maintain stability and protect the telescoping mechanism. This payload limit makes Stretch suitable for grasping cups, medication bottles, TV remotes, and small tools, but unsuitable for heavy industrial parts or bulky luggage.

Can the Hello Robot Stretch operate autonomously?

Stretch supports autonomous operation, but it requires user-developed or open-source software packages to navigate and grasp objects independently. The robot includes the sensors needed for autonomy, such as an RGB-D camera and a base laser scanner. However, most commercial and healthcare deployments still rely on semi-autonomous routines or web-based teleoperation interfaces while autonomous policies continue to mature in developer testing.

How long does the battery last on a Hello Robot Stretch?

The onboard battery provides approximately two to five hours of active operation depending on motor usage, payload weight, and computational demand. Light navigation and monitoring tasks draw less power, while continuous arm extensions and heavy real-time vision processing deplete the battery more quickly. Charging requires docking or plugging in the provided AC power supply between active operational sessions.

What software frameworks does Hello Robot support?

Hello Robot natively supports Python, the Robot Operating System (ROS), and ROS 2. The company maintains open-source repositories on GitHub that include hardware drivers, kinematics solvers, URDF models, and Gazebo simulation environments. Developers can also connect modern machine learning pipelines, teleoperation interfaces, and computer vision libraries directly to the robot's onboard Linux computer.

Is the Hello Robot Stretch suitable for outdoor use?

Stretch is designed strictly for indoor use on flat, level surfaces like hardwood, tile, and commercial low-pile carpet. Its small-diameter wheels and modest ground clearance make it unsuitable for grass, gravel, dirt, or wet sidewalks. The internal electronic components and camera arrays are not weather-sealed against rain, excessive humidity, or direct environmental debris.

How does Hello Robot support elder care and assistive tasks?

Hello Robot supports elder care by automating light physical chores such as picking up dropped items, retrieving medicine, and opening cabinet doors. The robot can be operated directly by caregivers via a web browser, or by individuals with limited mobility using specialized input devices like mouth-operated joysticks, eye-gaze systems, or tablet interfaces.

Primary Sources