How to Utilize Autonomous Mobile Robots for Warehouse Operations

Automated mobile robots can be used efficiently in warehouses by reducing walking time, improving the accuracy and efficiency of workflows, and enabling flexible capital expenses.

FREMONT, CA: Autonomous mobile robots(AMR) are robots that can operate within a warehouse environment without direct supervision from humans. It uses sensors and maps to interpret the environment, navigate through the warehouse floor, and detect and avoid obstacles instead of magnetic strips or tracks. 

An AMR can perform a variety of warehouse and order fulfillment functions, including executing pick strategies, transporting goods and materials, and guiding associates. Here are a few ways autonomous mobile robots can make warehouse operations more efficient.

Integrating automation easily: Warehouses and order fulfillment centers can deploy AMRs relatively easily compared to conveyor systems and other automation systems. Implementing AMRs does not require permanent, expensive, or structural changes. Since they do not interfere with the organization's facility's day-to-day operations, they can be implemented during working hours.

Walking time can be reduced: Traditional warehouses require associates to walk to the picking area, identify and retrieve the SKUs to be picked, and then walk back to sorting stations. Picking tasks becomes more time-consuming as a result of this walking back and forth.

With AMRs, especially collaborative robots, order fulfillment operations are more productive by automating the journey between the place where orders are allocated to a cart and the pick-up area, as well as the journey between the end of a picking cycle and the sorting station. In addition to reducing trips, AMRs enable warehouse associates to pick items for multiple orders at the same time. Moreover, reducing overall travel time through the warehouse also reduces physical and mental fatigue, resulting in fewer mistakes and accidents. It is particularly useful in facilitating zone and pick-and-pass picking methodologies when AMRs can be used to determine and follow optimized picking routes.

Flexible capital expenditures: Businesses can enjoy the benefits of AMRs on a tight budget without requiring permanent or expensive infrastructure changes to warehouses and distribution centers.

Using maps, AMRs navigate dynamically through warehouse floors, autonomously avoiding obstacles. Therefore, there is no need to install tracks and magnetic strips, create dedicated paths, or even prohibit forklifts and humans from operating in the areas where the robots are deployed. By deploying collaborative robots like Chuck within the facility, businesses do not need to make any costly capital investments. As a result of their ease of deployment, they can also be moved from one facility to another easily.

Human labor can be enhanced: AMRs can move products between workers and stations while human workers can focus on other high-value tasks. Human workers are less physically strained by eliminating the need to transport orders from one area to another. In addition, AMRs work alongside human associates and keep them on task. The robots can be programmed to travel optimal routes for an assignment, thus setting the pace for associates and guiding them on how to accomplish their goals.