Trend Watch: The Latest Innovations in AMR and Logistics Automation

Warehouses and logistics facilities rely heavily on industrial automation technologies to help move inventory into, within, and out of warehouses with accuracy and efficiency. In fact, warehouse automation orders are expected to grow modestly in 2024 but then return to double digit growth in 2025, according to market intelligence company Interact Analysis.

Several types of technologies are deployed within warehouses today, including barcode readers, smart cameras, machine vision cameras, machine vision software, industrial robots, collaborative robots (cobots), and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), all of which work toward the common goal of keeping goods flowing out the door and customers happy. AMRs represent a rapidly growing segment within automation, having grown 27% to $4.5 billion globally in 2023, according to Interact Analysis. While still considered somewhat of an emerging technology, AMR capabilities have evolved over the past several years, which has created more opportunities in logistics automation.

AMR Technology Advances
Anyone who walked the floor at Automate 2024 can attest that AMRs are an increasingly popular technology within the automation space, and that AMR manufacturers are innovating in several ways. In addition to getting stronger and faster, AMRs today can safely and effectively work alongside and with people. In many ways, as robot technology matures, it sits at the forefront of human collaboration, and that is not limited to just cobots.

A3’s Industrial Robot Standards include engineering guidelines, evaluation criteria, testing requirements, and safety requirements for AMRs that allow them to work in a similar fashion to cobots to substantially increase productivity. For example, in picking operations — which are typically done manually — software can direct AMRs to make picks and meet human workers where they’re located to deliver products, parts, or goods. In some cases, the human worker will even have a handheld scanning device that allows them to direct the robots while on the move.

AMR software has also improved dramatically, making fleet management and overall deployment and integration much easier in recent years; today, with updated fleet management software, companies can deploy AMRs in just a few weeks. In addition, several AMR manufacturers offer tools for visualizing and analyzing an AMR fleet, including the ability to see data on picking operations, worker productivity, and overall operational performance on the warehouse floor. AMR software has also become easier to use, offering employees quick, portable access to configure, control, or monitor AMR deployments.

AMR navigation has also become more mature — companies no longer need to physically alter their operations to deploy a fleet of robots. Instead, the robots can work within existing facilities by leveraging advanced navigation and safety sensors, which may include 3D cameras, laser scanners, proximity sensors, or LiDAR. Warehouse environments can change rapidly, so AMRs must be able to safely move throughout the facility. AMR vendors have kept pace with safety requirements and leveraged the latest technologies to ensure their robots can safely and autonomously navigate in a space without infrastructure, such as stickers or markers on parts or on the floor.

Adding Flexibility Through AI
Elsewhere in logistics facilities, several other automation technology advancements have been helping businesses solve new problems and increase overall operational efficiency in recent years. This includes software leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, which has added flexibility and new capabilities to automation systems of all types.

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Applications such as logistics sorting, palletizing, and depalletizing, for example, involve a wide range of package types and shapes. If all the items handled by the system were the same, AI would not be required, but as business needs evolve and more items are introduced into everyday processes, automation systems need more flexibility.

Introducing AI tools backed by a comprehensive training set allows the system to handle a wide range of package shapes and types by enabling the software to better recognize the part or product that will be picked and placed by the robot.

In bin picking applications — once colloquially considered to be perhaps the holy grail of industrial automation — AI offers the same type of flexibility. For e-commerce businesses, for instance, a vision-guided robot system is not limited to handling a single part or product in a given application. With AI-based software, an item-handling robot can handle hundreds or even thousands of SKUs from bins, totes, boxes, and cases by segmenting and identifying the objects to be picked. Applications leveraging deep learning or machine learning algorithms also learn over time, which allows the system to better recognize new parts, understand how to better handle parts and avoid collisions, and in general, improve robot picking.

See the Latest AMR Technologies
Industrial automation technologies continue to grow and advance, beyond just the warehouse floor. Technologies such as AMRs, machine vision, AI, and industrial robots will continue to evolve to meet the growing needs of disparate businesses around the world.

To see and learn about the latest in AMRs and logistics automation technology in person, register for the Autonomous Mobile Robots & Logistics Conference, which will be held at the Renasant Convention Center in Memphis, TN, from October 8–10. In addition, the Humanoid Robot Forum will be held at the same location on October 7. Register for both events and save $250. Register now.