MiR releases three major trends forecast for autonomous mobile robots in 2023

Enterprises are accelerating their embrace of AMR to improve production flexibility, and the industry is accelerating towards large-scale deployment and penetration into more complex scenarios

January 12, 2023, Shanghai - Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), a global leader in the mobile robot market, today released three major trend forecasts for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in 2023. MiR predicts that driven by national policies and flexible manufacturing needs, China's autonomous mobile robot market will maintain a strong development momentum in 2023, accelerate towards large-scale deployment, and penetrate into more diverse and complex scenarios, which will also place higher requirements on the software and ecological capabilities of the AMR industry.

Zhang Yu, Sales Director of MiR Autonomous Mobile Robots China, said: "The local manufacturing demand and national policy support have brought huge opportunities to the AMR industry. I am confident in the potential of the Chinese AMR market and the prospects for industrial development. Standing at the starting point of 2023, we hope to continue to contribute to China's smart manufacturing. While continuously consolidating our own software and hardware strengths, we will further explore the expansion of AMR functions with local ecosystem partners to fully meet customers' segmented needs in complex scenarios in more fields."

Trend 1: To cope with the high-tempo of flexible production, it is inevitable for enterprises to embrace AMR

As market demands in the digital age become increasingly refined, fragmented, and diversified, users are placing higher and higher demands on delivery cycles. In the C2B model, end-user demand drives companies to produce on demand. In response to increasingly frequent order changes and delivery pressures, many manufacturing companies are using production line logistics automation to improve production flexibility and agility. However, traditional AGV robots require laying wires or magnetic strips as "tracks," which are limited to fixed routes. Expanding/changing work areas is expensive and time-consuming, which not only fails to meet the needs of flexible production, but also brings high deployment costs, which discourages many companies.

Faced with the fast pace of flexible production, AMR is undoubtedly the general trend, because it does not require laying tracks, is easy to expand and change the working area, and is more flexible and intelligent. However, although there are many AMR products on the market now, the relevant safety certifications of many products are not yet clear, and the route planning and setting still need to be realized through virtual fixed lines, and points cannot be added flexibly. During the movement, this type of AMR cannot autonomously avoid obstacles or plan paths in real time, and requires manual intervention and planning. When switching tasks, it is also necessary to stop production and stop the line to cooperate, which is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. The programming logic involved in the entire deployment and use process is very complex, and multiple links need to rely on professional operation, and often additional software needs to be installed.

As a leader in the global mobile robot market, MiR's AMR has the core safety certification of mobile robots and has an independent safety system and control system. In terms of obstacle avoidance, MiR AMR can autonomously bypass pedestrians and obstacles to drive safely, and can plan and adjust routes in real time, so as to flexibly respond to site changes and task changes, stably shuttle between different production lines, units, warehouses, and floors, and efficiently and flexibly perform tasks such as picking and handling. In terms of operation, MiR AMR can be operated through web control and smart devices. The graphical programming interface is very intuitive, and employees can get started directly without programming experience.

All of the above functions of MiR AMR are based on a high level of safety. All MiR AMRs are equipped with dual laser scanners with a 360-degree field of view, which can always sense the surrounding environment in advance and re-plan the route at any time. In addition, MiR AMR's sensor vision is not affected by light and dust, has high scanning accuracy, and has passed high-level certification for overall safety, ensuring safety in noisy and crowded dynamic environments.

MiR AMR的柔性不仅体现在上述部署和操作层面，同时在空间上也表现为能够将一个市场的成功部署经验快速复制到更多市场 。移动设备龙头供应商 DENSO便是一个典型例子。DENSO是MiR 在全球最大的客户之一，此前其在欧洲、亚洲、美国等多个工厂部署MiR AMR的实战经验使公司对MiR产品建立起了高度的信赖，因此其田纳西州雅典市7.4 公顷的动力总成组件工厂也选择了MiR，同步部署了六台MiR250自主移动机器人，将MiR AMR的成功部署经验高效扩展至更多城市。由于DENSO的厂区环境经常会发生变化，需要机器人定期更改路线。在测试了几家不同供应商的 AMR产品后，DENSO认为MiR AMR在灵活性、安全性和易用性方面具有显著的优势——MiR AMR非常直观易用，可快速绘制地图并做出调整，从而实现自行导航，且无需在厂房地面上建造昂贵的基础设施。

[Photo: MiR250 deployed in DENSO powertrain component factory]

Trend 2: AMR is accelerating towards large-scale deployment, and multi-machine collaboration requires more advanced software capabilities

As the world's largest manufacturing producer, China has accelerated the pace of automation upgrades in various industries under the impetus of the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Robot Industry" and "Made in China 2025" and other national policies. As AMR technology matures, its flexibility, reliability, efficiency and strong adaptability are favored by more and more companies. Many companies have formed a situation of clustering hundreds of AMRs, and AMR is accelerating towards the era of large-scale deployment.

MiR believes that software capabilities are the core if AMR is to be deployed on a large scale in various industries at an accelerated pace. This first refers to the software of the AMR itself. High-quality software can improve the intelligence of the AMR, making it easier for users to issue instructions more quickly, making the robot run safer, more stable, and more accurate; secondly, the cluster operation of multiple AMRs places higher demands on the intelligence and coordination of the AMR and dispatching system, so more excellent AMR fleet management software is needed to support it. MiR Fleet, the fleet management software independently developed by MiR, can manage up to 100 AMRs to work together at the same time, and carry out 7x24 hours of multi-site delivery; in addition, the software must also be open, able to easily access various communication software, analysis software, and safety monitoring software, and allow AMR to be closely integrated with the existing ERP and WMS systems in the customer's factory.

MiR is well aware of the importance of software and continues to iterate on it. In recent months, MiR has released a new upgraded version of the software. After the software upgrade, AMR can make more accurate judgments and more timely responses to the surrounding environment, and its operating efficiency can reach a higher level; at the same time, at the operational level, the newly designed user interface further improves the overall ease of use. The user interface has multiple user levels and can be easily operated through desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones; in addition, the new software also further consolidates security protection according to the IEC 62443 network security standard. IEC 62443 is an internationally recognized information security standard for industrial automation control systems, which puts forward strict requirements for industrial information security.

[Figure: Software upgrade further improves MiR robot fleet management efficiency]

FORVIA, one of the world's top ten automotive parts suppliers, has deployed 14 MiR AMRs at its production base in the Czech Republic, the Faurecia Green Mobility Pisek plant, and uses MiR Fleet for fleet management. The plant is very busy, with various logistics equipment and workers such as palletizers, carts, forklifts, etc. shuttling in it all the time, so the 14 AMRs must be efficiently coordinated to ensure safety. Under the coordination of MiR Fleet, these AMRs can work around the clock to meet the production needs of three shifts in an orderly manner. The communication between AMRs and doors and box strappers is fully automatic and does not require any operator assistance.

[Photo: Faurecia Green Mobility Pisek factory deploys multiple MiR AMRs]

Trend 3: AMR is penetrating into more diverse and complex scenarios, placing high demands on ecosystem capabilities

Looking back at 2022, from the Winter Olympics at the beginning of the year to the CIIE at the end of the year, the market has seen more abundant applications of robot technology. From cooking robots in smart restaurants to logistics robots in media centers, from temperature measurement robots in public areas to companion robots, AMR is penetrating from typical industrial fields to more diverse scenarios. The diverse needs in complex scenarios place very high demands on the scalability of AMR functions.

The expansibility of robot functions can be considered from two aspects. One is the ability to expand its own functional scope by cooperating with other technologies. MiR AMR brings together various types of fully and rigorously tested solutions such as frames/racks, traction devices, lifting devices, conveyor belts, robotic arms, disinfection modules, electric stations, etc. that are continuously developed by partners through the MiRGo platform. Through MiRGo, users can get dozens of out-of-the-box solutions and hundreds of applications to extend the use and functions of AMR. In addition, AMR can also be paired with collaborative robot arms. If the ability of the AMR driving chassis to autonomously navigate replaces the walking function of human legs and feet, then the collaborative robot arm replaces the function of human arms. The combination of the two further extends the application scenarios of robots.