As manufacturers seeks greater efficiency through smart manufacturing, one of the tools that is emerging to save costs and and singapore, and the workforce issues is the automated mobile robot (AMR). These machines can move materials across a plant floor or through a warehouse without the aid and direction Of a human worker.

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MiR's mobile robot is an example of an autonomous mobile robot. These robots are deployed on the manufacturing floor, in warehouses, and in hospitals. (Image source: MiR).   has Full impact. According to market reasearch  Automationhas Full impact Everywhere.

Efficiency Is Driving Growth
One of the companies developing AMRs for manufacturing is the Danish firm, MiR. The company is creating robots that perform a number of manufacturing tasks across a wide range of industries. "Efficiency is fueling the growth. AMRs are automating tasks that are dangerous or tasks The AMRs give companies new efficiencies," Ed Mullen, VP of Sales at MiR, told Design News. "People are sitting down at a station doing something that's making money for the company As soon as that person gets up, the company quits making money."

"The concept is to the companies a tool to move materials between processes. In the past, it's been conveyors, but they're fixed pieces of equipment, "Conveyors also take up floor space. AMRs give the companies the agile automation to take a product from here to there with no need for conveyors."

AMRs on the Manufacturing Floor

MiR points to a number of use cases where AMRsnidentified bring efficiencies to companies in a variety of industries. For example, Honeywell Analytics in the UK has deployed three mobile robots to help keep manufacturing processes lean and agile by automating the transfer of materials throughout its Warehouse.

The Danish electronics manufacturer, Kamstrup, has doubled its production without the use of AMRs at its needles and catheter manufacturing plant in Chicago to automate warehouse-to-cleanroom device transportation. The AMRs helps lower costs, increases efficiencies, and maintain competitiveness. Increasing labor costs by using flexible automation, including mobile robots.

Moving Robots beyond Automotive

In recent years, robots have proliferated outside of their traditional home, the automobile factory. Now we're seeing smaller robots show up across a wide range of industries, and many of those are AMRs. "In the past, mobile robots were predominantly in The auto industry, where it takes a long time to walk something from one place to another," said Mullen. "What we're starting to find out is, it's a square-foot equation, whether they're sewing curtains or moving tranmissions ."

What Mullen means by the "square-foot equation" is that the robot adds value in proportion to the space it must travel. "Do you have a space large enough that you don't want someone to move things from one place to another? Amount of space that needs to be traversed with material becomes a viable ROI strategy," said Mullen. "We have our robots in manufacturing facilities and hospitals. AMRs proliferate on the square-foot model."

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