Stretch 3

Overview

The Hello Robot Stretch 3 is a lightweight mobile manipulator priced at $17,000 (approximately £13,500), featuring a 1.1 m telescoping mast and 6 degrees of freedom. Unlike bipedal humanoids, Stretch 3 uses a wheeled base, making it highly stable and well suited to domestic and clinical research environments. Hello Robot, based in Atlanta, has built a strong reputation in assistive robotics research, with Stretch units deployed in hundreds of universities and healthcare labs worldwide including several in the UK. The platform is regarded as one of the best-documented and best-supported research robots available at its price point, with a mature ROS 2 ecosystem and active user community that provides practical support beyond the manufacturer's own documentation.

Key Specifications

• Mast height: up to 1.1 m telescoping
• Degrees of Freedom: 6
• Base: wheeled, omnidirectional
• Payload: approximately 1.5 kg
• Price: $17,000 (approx. £13,500)
• Status: available

Use Cases

Stretch 3 is the leading platform for domestic assistance research, human-robot interaction studies, and healthcare robotics experiments. Its narrow form factor allows navigation in standard doorways and corridors without modification. Several UK universities use Stretch for activities-of-daily-living research and cognitive assistance studies. The open-source ROS 2 support makes it easy to integrate with existing research code and connect to external AI systems.

Buying Used

Used Stretch units appear occasionally through university surplus channels and the Hello Robot community forum. Battery condition and wheel drive motor wear are the main considerations. Hello Robot maintains a responsive support channel and publishes extensive documentation, making used unit support more accessible than most competitors.

Alternatives to Consider

• Unitree G1 ($16,000): bipedal if locomotion research is the primary goal
• Galbot G1 ($88,000 to $98,000): wheeled dual-arm with much higher payload for heavier tasks
• Agibot Genie 1: adjustable-height wheeled robot for manipulation research with a larger work envelope