One control system for a multi-vendor AMR fleet

A Tier 1 automotive parts manufacturer was bringing autonomous mobile robots into its plant from several manufacturers. Each brand came with its own traffic manager and console, and none of them were connected to the warehouse management system, the production line or the building.

What they needed

One system to run the whole material flow: pallets unloaded from semi trucks, put away into storage, and parts delivered to the line exactly when production calls for them, no matter which robot does the work.

What we built

• A warehouse control system with a multi-vendor fleet manager that dispatches missions to the best available robot of any brand
• A REST adapter for each robot vendor's traffic manager, behind one common interface
• Integration with SAP, the MES and the WMS, so orders and line calls become robot missions automatically
• BLE and Wi-Fi localization, geofencing and asset tracking
• Connections to gates, elevators, conveyors and the fire alarm system
• Automatic line-side replenishment and preventive maintenance schedules
• A live operations view, with real-time streaming and cloud storage on AWS

How a part moves

1. Receive: a pallet comes off the semi truck and is scanned into the WMS.
2. Put away: the system picks a storage location and sends a robot to move it.
3. Store: inventory is tracked by location in real time.
4. Retrieve on demand: a line call triggers a mission to pull the right parts.
5. Deliver: a robot drops the parts at the point of use and returns the empty.

The result

Robots from different manufacturers work as one fleet, from the dock to the line, and adding a new robot brand means writing one adapter instead of rebuilding the system.