Integrating Mobile Robots Into Your Operations
There are numerous applications that can include mobile robots, but you need to know how to integrate them first.
While AI might be stealing the attention of the entire logistics industry, there’s no question that mobile robots like automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robotics (AMRs) are a close second. The former—AGVs—operate on guided pathways within your operations. The latter—AMRs—move freely about your operations, increasing their flexibility and the types of operations where they thrive. But for all their many applications, what many warehouse managers wonder is how to integrate mobile automation into their operations and with other equipment.
In general, customers are looking for flexibility with their mobile automation, and the good news is that it delivers that. There are multiple places and applications for mobile automation, and when you work with a robotics partner, they can help educate you on those opportunities.
Mobile robots have potential for processes like picking, put away, loading other types of equipment, and more. When you integrate them into your systems, you’ll streamline operations, remove human errors, and boost efficiencies. At their best, mobile robots integrate with other automated solutions. Combined, they deliver increasingly rapid return on investment
The overall design of your systems and architecture are an important piece of integration. Working with your OEM or integrator, you’ll need to identify upstream and downstream processes within your business and how mobile robotics can work within them. While you’ll be looking to modify those processes, it’s important that they’re not overly disruptive to your overall operations and rather optimize them.
There are a variety of use cases where mobile automation come into play. Consider, for instance, a largely manual operation where your employees push carts of finished goods to a sortation unit. This is both slow and inefficient, and hard on your employees, which makes it an opportune place to introduce mobile automation.
This could look instead like mobile robots moving the finished goods to the other area of the warehouse. Operators would instead work within stations, concentrating on putting the goods together, then handing them off to robots to move down to feed the conveyor—in this case, a two-level conveyor to help expedite operations.
Another example is integration robots with vertical storage solutions. Again rather than requiring your staff to load and/or unload vertical storage solutions like automated storage and retrieval (ASRS), mobile robots can move products to the unit and make the handoff.
At the heart of any mobile robot integration is software. You’ll need some sort of middleware, like a warehouse execution system (WES) or warehouse control system (WCS) specific to the automation. This middleware will communicate between the equipment and the warehouse’s “brain,” or main orchestrator, a warehouse management system (WMS). This is another place where your OEM or integrator will help you establish those connections and ensure seamless integration.
Multiple factors make mobile robots a good choice. With the right approach, integrating them into your operations can be easier than you think.
Source: Jared Sanders, Bastian Solutions
To find out more about MHI’s MAG Industry Group: https://www.mhi.org/mag
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Podcast: MAG – How To Get Started With Mobile Automation
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