BY BEN AMES, SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
ROBOTICS/AUTOMATED GUIDED VEHICLES
Material Handling
The relentless drive for warehouse
efficiency is sparking new interest
in self-driving vehicles. For
those wondering which type to
buy, experts say forget the labels
and focus on capabilities.
AMRs and AGVs
rev their engines
THE MANUAL WAREHOUSE IS FAST BECOMING A THING OF THE
past. These days, DCs are increasingly turning to automation as they
struggle to cope with a surging tide of e-commerce orders in the midst of
a worsening labor shortage.
Vendors have stepped up to the demand. As a result, DC managers now
have an unprecedented array of automated material handling systems
to choose from. Options range from classic conveyor belts to automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) and now to the latest entrant,
autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).
But, wait a minute. As any warehousing veteran can tell you, mobile
robots are hardly new to the DC. Robots known as “automated guided
vehicles,” or AGVs, have been a fixture in many operations for decades,
ferrying goods throughout the facility without the benefit of a driver.
So how does this new entrant, the AMR, differ from the AGV? And how
does it fit into the big picture where materials movement technology is
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