Blog: Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for the logistics sector | AGILOX

What you should consider when choosing your provider

Written by Doris | Mar 10, 2023 11:45:00 AM

As it is well known, there are various solutions and systems in the field of automation of logistics processes.
Which of these is the right one for you depends directly on the requirements and development goals of your company.

Nevertheless, a few basic aspects can be identified that you should include in your explorations and consider before making your decision.

Structural System Requirements

As you know, automation in production logistics can be carried out using inflexible solutions - including conveyor belts and transport solutions linked to virtual or physical guide rails - or using flexible, preferably autonomous transport systems.

Both are tied to certain spatial and technical requirements – albeit to vastly different degrees.

Without existing structures, inflexible systems such as conveyor belts or transport vehicles tied to guide rails usually require not only one-off major structural measures in advance but also whenever the production lines or storage structures should change.

In contrast, the structural system requirements for our AGILOX AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots) are significantly lower. There are exactly three requirements that must be met:

Floor condition

To ensure reliable, smooth operation, the application areas must have smooth floors. AGILOX AMRs are floor-bound vehicle systems and are not designed to automatically overcome height differences such as stairs or floor gaps.
With suitable freight elevators, our AMRs can be programmed to carry out processes on different production or storage levels.

Charging station

AGILOX AMRs require charging stations with the appropriate power supply to operate. Especially in fleet operation, each AGILOX AMR should therefore have its separate charging station with the appropriate power supply, which is automatically started up during operation as soon as a certain charge level is reached or there is no order. This ensures that there are no or - in exceptional cases - only negligible waiting times.
After only 3-5 minutes, the loading process is completed, and the AMRs are automatically reintegrated into the running processes.

WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS

Finally, just as indispensable is a stable and powerful WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) infrastructure, which is available without fluctuations in all areas of the area where the AMRs are used, to ensure problem-free operation.

Integration into existing processes

While major structural changes inevitably represent longer phases in which your business can only operate to a limited extent or is even forced to come to a complete standstill, AGILOX AMRs can be easily and quickly integrated into existing processes and premises under the conditions described. Thanks to the X-SWARM Technology we developed, the first AMR can be commissioned in less than 12 hours(!) and each additional one in less than 15 minutes(!).

Immediate increase in safety standards

Thanks to the quick commissioning and integration of our AGILOX AMRs, their use leads to an immediate increase in safety standards with far-reaching positive effects for your employees and your company.

The central task of our AMRs is to relieve your employees of Internally monotonous, little value-adding, and potentially dangerous and/or physically demanding activities with a correspondingly high risk of accidents and illness.

The immediate effects are:
+ Significantly fewer accidents or signs of physical wear and tear because of one-sided and physically difficult activities and consequently fewer sick leaves.
+ a noticeably better working atmosphere and increased attractiveness of the jobs due to safer working conditions.
+ the potential to retrain the affected employees to positions with higher added value and to upgrade them internally,
+ and thanks to higher company productivity, higher job security, and satisfaction on the part of your employees

For you as a company, the improvements also result in:
+ a significant increase in efficiency,
+ significant cost savings,
+ minimize staff turnover and
+ forward-looking market advantages through more flexibility.

Cost-benefit factor

The positive effects and potential for improvement just described give an affirmative answer to the question of whether the use of one or more of our AGILOX AMRs is worthwhile.

Our customers confirm that the use of our smart AMRs around the rapid commissioning, the autonomous map creation and loading processes, the small spatial and technical basic requirements as well as the intelligent cooperation of our vehicles in fleet and mixed operation, is profitable from the first moment and the "return on investment" can be achieved exceptionally quickly as a result.

TCO (Total Cost Of Ownership)

Regarding the TCO, we also focus entirely on our customers and accompany the process from the first soundings to commissioning and beyond.

For us, this includes - picking out a few representative aspects - in-depth advice from our sales team with many years of experience regarding business specifications.

The next phase is a live on-site demonstration of one of our AMRs, which provides further essential insights. Incidentally, the costs for such demos will be credited back to you when you conclude a purchase offer.

In addition, we support you with the safety training of your staff, as well as their training concerning daily operation and operation.

The latter is relevant because our systems are known to "work" with little maintenance in the long term when operated correctly and are also designed to allow continuous optimization of the processes through simple adjustments to the stations themselves and within the company. In this way, the costs for external specialists can also be kept to an absolute minimum. In addition, many support services can also be carried out by us remotely.

In terms of software, all regular updates are also freely available to you at AGILOX as part of comprehensive subscriptions.

Surely you also want to know which unique selling points also distinguish AGILOX and why AGILOX is the right choice for you too? Which groundbreaking and future-oriented potentials are associated with the technological innovations of AGILOX? And what do our existing customers say about us based on their direct operational experiences?

In this case, you should download our free fact sheet, which gives you a conclusive overview and is available for you here.
In addition, you can use the fact sheet to access in-depth articles like this one for each of the briefly summarized topics – also free of charge.