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Autonomous mobile robots can convey orders in uninterrupted cycles across a warehouse or through a shipping facility dozens of times each day.
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Applied Technology Review | Thursday, September 02, 2021
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Autonomous mobile robots can convey orders in uninterrupted cycles across a warehouse or through a shipping facility dozens of times each day.
FREMONT, CA: Autonomous robots, like humans, can make their own decisions and take action based on those decisions. A truly autonomous robot can observe its environment, make decisions based on what it sees, and be programmed to identify situations and then trigger a movement or manipulation within that environment. These decision-based behaviors in robot mobility, for instance, include but are not confined to basic tasks such as starting, stopping, and navigating around obstacles in their path.
3 Applications of Autonomous Robots
Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for Logistics
While AMRs’ capabilities are evolving, the most fundamental and extensively used application for these devices is material transportation. AMRs can convey orders in uninterrupted cycles across a warehouse or through a shipping facility dozens of times each day. Transportation is a labor-intensive profession, and using robots to perform these activities is one of the simplest ways to free up human workers for other critical tasks while minimizing disruptions to processes.
Healthcare
Many sectors are exploring creative uses for robots as their capabilities and simplicity of use grow. More autonomous robots are being used in the healthcare profession nowadays for a range of activities. AMRs are, first and foremost, a beneficial instrument for streamlining supply and medicine transport around a hospital facility. This is especially critical in infectious disease units because it keeps nurses from coming into touch with harmful pollutants while still ensuring that patients get the care they need. Second, medical AMRs can be employed in sanitation—robots can be equipped with virus-killing UV lights, or decontamination sprays that clean a room or space without putting people in danger.
Research and Development
AMRs are utilized in research and development to reduce the time and effort required for repetitive testing or other technical requirements. AMRs are also increasingly becoming part of the research process. The development of sensors and robotic manipulation technologies, for example, is a hot field of innovation. Researchers are exploring methods to deploy technology as these studies progress, but many organizations lack the time or resources to construct their own platforms. Sensors and manipulators used in research may be readily integrated into the mobile platform with a flexible AMR, giving these developing technologies easy-to-use, autonomous mobility, and saving corporations and research institutions time and money in the development process.