🇺🇸 Hello Robot

About Hello Robot

Hello Robot was founded in 2017 by Aaron Edsinger and Charlie Kemp, both with backgrounds in academic and assistive robotics. The company's focus is on affordable, accessible mobile manipulation platforms that bridge research and real-world household assistance. Unlike the industrial humanoid segment, Hello Robot targets a price point reachable by university labs, hospitals, and individual researchers rather than enterprise manufacturing clients.

The Stretch platform, now in its third generation, is a lightweight mobile manipulator on a wheeled base with a telescoping arm and gripper. It weighs around 23 kg, fits through standard doorways, and runs on ROS2 with an accessible Python SDK, making it popular for robotics research and assistive technology development. The design philosophy prioritises simplicity, safety, and repairability over brute payload or speed. Hello Robot has published open-source tools and maintains an active developer community.

The company operates at a smaller scale than the funded humanoid startups but has produced one of the most practically useful and widely deployed research platforms in the sub-£30,000 category.

Key Products

• Stretch 3: Mobile manipulator; telescoping arm, ROS2 native, Python SDK, approximately $25,000 USD list price
• Stretch 2: Previous generation; still supported and available refurbished through Hello Robot

UK Market Presence

Hello Robot sells internationally, including to UK universities and research institutions. UK buyers typically purchase direct from Hello Robot's US web store with shipping and import duties added. VAT and customs can add 20-25% to the base USD price. Several UK universities use Stretch platforms in robotics and HRI research programmes. UK-based integrators occasionally offer configuration and support services for Stretch deployments.

Buying Used Hello Robot Equipment

Used Stretch units appear through university equipment disposals and occasionally on research equipment marketplaces. Expect to pay £12,000 to £20,000 for a Stretch 2 or early Stretch 3 in good condition. Hello Robot provides good software continuity and the ROS2 stack is actively maintained. Buyers should check the telescoping mast for wear, inspect the gripper mechanics, and verify the battery health. Software updates remain available regardless of purchase channel.