View original at www.therobotreport.com

Last week’s RIA Autonomous Mobile Robot Conference featured different AMRs. Source: MiR LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Autonomous mobile robots have reached reached new levels of maturity and adoption, but technical and business challenges remain, said speakers and attendees at a conference here last week. More than 400 people attended the 2019 Autonomous Mobile Robot Conference , which was produced by the Association for Advancing Automation ( A3 ) and the Robotic Industries Association ( RIA ). The sessions on autonomous mobile robots ( AMRs ) covered topics including the development of AMRs, standards efforts, and mobile manipulation. The conference also included exhibits by robotics vendors such as Harmonic Drive , Kaarta, Precise Automation, Universal Robots, Vecna Robotics , and Waypoint Robotics . Here are six takeaways from the RIA’s first Autonomous Mobile Robot Conference: 1. Autonomous mobile robot accuracy improving but varies Most autonomous mobile robots are similar, but the differences in how they work affects their safety and usefulness in different environments, explained Melonee Wise, CEO of Fetch Robotics, which recently raised $46 million . She noted the design options for sensors, odometry, localization, mapping, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and object detection. For instance, depending on the sensors and algorithms used, an AMR’s estimation of its location and surroundings could be more or less accurate, said Wise. Source: Melonee Wise, Fetch Robotics, and RIA “All AMR companies have different methods for localization and mapping,” she said. “Users should evaluate mapping at scale — if you have 10,000 sq. ft., don’t test in lab situations.” Energy and payload requirements have created demand for ever smaller and faster components, said Juan Avalos, an application engineer at Brother Gearmotors. In the near term, advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning will lead to improved path planning with remote sensing, obstacle avoidance, and object […]