MiR notes tenth anniversary as AMR market matures
The autonomous cellular robotic (AMR) vendor Cellular Industrial Robots (MiR) is celebrating its 10th anniversary as each the Danish startup and the business it helped to discovered start the transition from cutting-edge tech startups to producers of mature materials dealing with gear.
Lower than a decade in the past, the thought of totally autonomous cellular robots interacting seamlessly with human workers in warehouses and manufacturing amenities appeared a futuristic imaginative and prescient, in keeping with MiR, which right now is owned by Teradyne Inc. However right now, hundreds of AMRs from MiR alone ship elements, transport completed merchandise, and deal with a number of different logistics duties with out the necessity for human operators, separate work areas, or exterior steering.
And analysts are forecasting double-digit development for AMR gross sales yearly by means of at the least 2027 and a interval of multi-decade development. “MiR was one of many early movers within the AMR business and was visionary in creating a scalable platform of robots that could possibly be simply deployed and built-in into factories and warehouses,” Ash Sharma, managing director at Work together Evaluation, stated in a launch. “It continues to innovate and has helped the business to develop from a fledgling business to what’s now a multi-billion-dollar sector with AMRs deployed in hundreds of buildings all over the world.”
Not many robotic makers are older than 10 years, aside from Vecna (based in 1998) and Seegrid (2003), which started their lives centered on associated automation platforms like automated guided autos (AGVs). And it was simply 11 years in the past that Amazon acquired business pioneer Kiva Programs in 2012. However a flock of others will quickly attain the last decade mark, together with Fetch Robotics (now owned by Zebra, and based in 2014), ForwardX (2016), Geek+ (2015), 6 River Programs (now owned by Ocado, based in 2015), and Locus Robotics (2014).
MiR President Jean-Pierre Hathout sees prospects now transitioning from utilizing AMRs in pilots to utilizing AMRs 24×7 in manufacturing functions. “Within the first 10 years of MiR’s historical past, we led the business with progressive AMRs as we scaled globally with our prospects,” Hathout stated in a launch. “I couldn’t be extra excited concerning the subsequent 10 years as we construct on that innovation to offer a full vary of AMR options on widespread software program for our international prospects.”
Certainly, software program would be the essential ingredient that helps AMRs acquire even larger market share in DCs all over the world, he stated. By gathering robotic working knowledge on cloud platforms, fleet homeowners will be capable of handle and optimize the operations of their robots by gaining actionable insights to enhance deployments.
“As robotic fleets develop, so does the demand for software program instruments to optimize efficiency and handle full fleets,” Hathout stated. “If we would like AMRs to be as widespread as forklifts and pallet lifters, it’s important that we decrease the boundaries for implementation, reprogramming, and upkeep. We’ve already made substantial progress on this course, and I firmly consider we’ve got solely glimpsed the true potential of automated logistic options.”
