Introduction

Imagine you are walking into a grocery store, and instead of being greeted by a quasi-employee moving around through its aisles, delivering items that you put in your shopping basket. Think of buzzing warehouses filled with robotic helpers shuffling goods and inventory (with perfect accuracy, carrying heavy payloads, and at a very high speed).

With the advancements in technology, the science fiction visions of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) are becoming a part of our everyday reality, be it social robots at home or factories, warehouses, workplaces or retail stores.

This blog would take a deep dive into the intriguing realm of AGVs and AMRs including their use cases and how such robotic technologies are changing sectors.

Understanding AGVs and AMRs

What are AGVs and AMRs?

AGVs and AMRs are robotic systems meant for moving goods/materials. But, there are distinct contrasts. AGVs tend to be guided along predefined routes using magnetic tape, wires, or lasers to navigate. They usually need more infrastructure and are used for repetitive work in a managed environment like factories and warehouses.

On the other hand, AMR employs sensors and uses advanced AI algorithms to navigate through their environment with ease. They can visualize the world and know where they are – hence making them perfect for contexts such as retail spaces or hospitals.

“The value in robotics is that they can be dynamically reconfigurable and responsive to their worlds, thereby increasing productivity, efficiency, and safety.”

Applications of AGVs and AMRs

Redesigning the Industry Sector: AGVs have always cut through the manufacturing processes, increasing their efficiency across processes.

Material Transportation: AGVs transfer raw materials and finished goods through assembly lines, which can reduce the need for human handling, hence improving efficiency.

Inventory management: Certain advanced AGV systems are linked with warehouse management software, enabling real-time monitoring of stock levels.

Transforming The Retail Experience

These developments regarding autonomous shopping and pick-and-place AMRs are ultimately designed to bring the customer into focus by innovating around their convenience. These improve the customer experience and store operations significantly.

Examples of AMR Use in Retail

• Inventory Shelving: AMRs can descend the aisles and restock shelves of warehouse or retail stores, if not even assisting customers in finding items.
• Order Fulfilment: AMRs assist in the efficient picking and packing of online orders, which results in faster delivery times for the consumer.

Upgrading Healthcare with Robotics

Hospitals are also deploying AGVs and AMRs to enhance their throughput management capabilities as well as overall patient care.

• Medicine delivery: AMRs allow certain hospitals to deliver medication and supplies within their facility – saving staff time from walking around collecting things.
• Sanitization – Robot-assisted UV light disinfection for surfaces to depress contact-based infections without any human intervention.

Advanced Delivery and Logistics

The introduction of AGVs and AMRs has made significant alterations to the logistics industry. These same systems help in quick and safe delivery of the packages.

• Last-Mile Delivery: AMRs are used for last-mile delivery in urban locations. They can move through environments realistically, dodging pedestrians and other obstacles to successfully navigate their surroundings.
• Warehouse operations: Automation of everything from sorting packages to driving them all the way over towards loading/unloading documents or under a tray; so that there is little human error due versus AGVs’ machine assistance/inaccuracy.

Role of Wireless Power Technology

The advent of wireless charging technology, operations, maintenance, and wider application of AGVs and AMRs are further enhanced. In fact, wireless charging technology opens up more avenues to increase productivity in factories, warehouses, retail, and other establishments, including transportation.

The technological approach taken for wireless charging of AGVs and AMRs is similar to that of wireless charging of electric vehicles/autonomous vehicles (EVs/AVs). Each of these could be charged using multiple approaches – be it static charging (overnight at the charging bay); through opportunity charging (wherever they stop at loading/unloading points); or on-the-go while in motion (dynamic charging),

Conclusion

AGVs and AMRs are now becoming useful in our conduct of day-to-day runs in almost every sector and situation. These robotic devices continue to underpin a revolution transforming wider industries, from boosting manufacturing efficiency and increasing retail footfalls to enhancing healthcare experiences. an era of automation series will forge new pathways in convenience and productivity

For both end-users and businesses in general, it is imperative for one to be updated about such innovations as they continue to evolve. If you are a consumer interested in knowing what the future has to offer or a business owner willing to adopt and optimize, then robotics is no longer simply an option but a true necessity.

About Wired and Wireless Technologies (WAWT)

Wired and Wireless Technologies (WAWT), through its comprehensive research data and insights and market intelligence on the wireless power market titled ‘Wireless Power Intelligence Service’, covers various types of wireless power technology solutions using different frequency levels – be it inductive, resonance, NFC, RF, or infrared-based. WAWT monitors the use of various types of wireless power solutions developed and adopted across 30+ different types of application markets across automotive, consumer, computing, wearables, hearables, medical/healthcare, smart home, industrial, robotics, retail, infrastructure, and other sectors. 

Do reach out to our subject matter experts (SMEs) by emailing us at analyst@wawt.tech and following our LinkedIn page (WAWT) for the latest market estimates and forecasts, trends, insights, and updates on wireless power/charging and allied technologies.