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The “seismic” shift from fixed automation to mobile robots will transform material handling within the industrial supply chain, as well as other areas of manufacturing – according to new research by a global tech market advisory firm. AVGs are fixed, heavy installations used in repetitive processes – whereas AMRs are more flexible and cost-effective, performing sophisticated tasks without manual operation or observation By 2022, the rapidly growing autonomous mobile robots (AMR) space will start to overtake the traditional industrial robotics market, and of the 8 million robots forecast to be shipped in 2030, nearly 6 million will be mobile, according to ABI Research. Currently, mobile autonomy is concentrated in material handling within the supply chain, but mobile robots are set to touch every sector of the global economy for a wide range of use-cases. The “enormous” projected growth is expected to permeate all subsectors of industry and generate an estimated total market valuation of approximately US$277bn (£211bn), as mobile robots grow to “touch every sector of the global economy for a wide range of use-cases”. Mobile autonomy is currently concentrated in internal logistics within the manufacturing supply chain where further developments are predicted to happen before mobile robots become commonplace in other areas of industry, according to the ABI Research Commercial and Industrial Robotics market data report. “Everyone talks about self-driving passenger vehicles, but mobile automation is far more developed in intralogistics for fulfilment and industry,” commented Rian Whitton, senior analyst at ABI Research. “The automation of material handling will see huge segments of the global forklift, tow truck, and indoor vehicle market consumed by robotics vendors and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that bring indoor autonomy,” he added. AGV vs AMR – What’s the Difference? AGVs currently represents the majority of mobile robot shipments, but this will change by […]