As the pinch from the labor shortage continues, more facilities are turning to automated vehicles to take the place of, or enhance the work of, warehouse workers. The two most common mobile vehicles are automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). They share much in common, but you may find one type more suited to your operations than the other.
AGVs have been around for several decades now, but their sophistication continues to grow. Essentially, AGVs follow a fixed path, guided by magnetic tapes, wires, painted lines, or QR codes. They are limited by these paths and do not have free roam in a facility. AMRs, on the other hand, can navigate a path from one point to another. They can avoid obstacles and work well in delivering goods to person environments. Today, many facilities have both types of vehicles, or even new generation vehicles that combine the characteristics of each.
Have you implemented mobile robots in your facility?
