Originally featured in Plant Engineering’s Global System Integrator Report, AMT’s Innovation Manager Jason Markesino and Lead Automation Engineer Chris Gomez authored, “How Integrating an AMR Can Provide Value in Manufacturing, Industrial Facilities.” The article explores the growing number of applications, advantages, and design considerations for implementing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in industrial settings. This summary provides a brief overview. For the full article, visit this link.
Experienced autonomous mobile robot (AMR) system designers can help integrate innovative and cost-efficient solutions that address many challenges in manufacturing and industrial facilities. With guidance from an experienced integrator, a fleet of AMRs can be commissioned with minimal downtime in just a few days for a wide range of applications, including material handling, machine tending, sortation and more.
Listed below are five key technological advances driving the growth and expansion of AMR use cases in industrial settings.
- SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) technology, enabling the AMR to interpret, map and navigate its surroundings
- AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning), allowing the AMR to analyze the large amounts of environmental data
- Collaborative robots (cobots), expanding the potential tasks an AMR can complete
- Improved battery technology, allowing AMRs to operate for eight to 12 hours on a single charge
- Improved onboard computing, enabling the AMR to perform the complex computations locally
Sample AMR Applications: Forklifts and Conveyors
Because of their flexibility and ease of implementation, AMRs stand poised to upgrade and replace several traditional manufacturing and logistics systems and tasks across multiple industries.
Due to their extensive environmental sensors and safety features, many industrial facilities have implemented a fleet of AMRs for material handling in high human traffic environments. Their traditional forklifts are then increasingly relegated to more segregated areas for dock loading and unloading. One common example is the pallet jack AMR, which efficiently replaces forklifts for transporting loads through shared workspaces.
Another growing application is the use of AMRs as an alternative to traditional conveyors. While not suited for high-speed, high-volume operations, AMRs excel in environments that demand flexibility, dynamic routing, and adaptability to multiple tasks.
AMRs Require Expertise for Full Integration
The value of working with an experienced integrator for AMR implementation cannot be overstated. A skilled integrator understands critical design and technology considerations including:
- Requirements for floor space, fleet size, and environmental conditions
- Program design and error recovery
- Coordination with control systems, fleet manager software and API calls
- PLC and AMR communications
- Middleware software
- And more
The growth of AMRs for solving common manufacturing challenges has been driven by key advances in sensing technologies and data processing capabilities. These advances have increased the breadth and complexity of tasks AMRs can now complete while simplifying their implementation. With the right integrator, an AMR solution can be designed and implemented quickly with minimal on-site downtime, positioning the manufacturer for rapid adoption of this flexible and scalable solution.