AMA: Which AMR attachments best suit my workflows?

In this blog series, manufacturing facilities and warehouses ask their top industry and product questions, and OTTO’s material flow experts answer them.

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are deployed in manufacturing facilities worldwide to improve material handling efficiency, increase safety, and reallocate available labor to more fulfilling tasks. The robots often require attachments, such as carts, conveyors and lifts, to move your payloads through your facility.

Which AMR attachments best suit my workflows?

When considering AMR attachments, ensure it is compatible with the workflow you are looking to automate, it can securely handle your unique payloads, and it works well alongside your existing people and facility infrastructure.

Staging Carts

• This type of attachment is used exclusively for person-to-person workflows, including workcell delivery, lineside delivery and work-in-progress transport. Capable of moving bins, boxes, totes and even loose parts up to 150 kg to and from people to increase material handling throughput, Staging Cart attachments help improve ergonomics and worker satisfaction. By customizing the attachment, manufacturers can enable efficient spare part handling and unlock timely movement of materials with minimal downtime and hands-on support.

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Conveyors

• Many AMRs offer conveyor attachments to move payloads to and from existing conveyors in your facility and need to be capable of integrating with them to allow for automatic transfers with no human intervention. Standard conveyor attachments (40” and 48”) autonomously transfer pallets as heavy as 1,900 kg. Manufacturers can also customize the conveyor attachment to accommodate unique payloads, like cardboard boxes on this double stacked conveyor and heavy-duty parts on this dual bay conveyor.

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Lifts

• Lift attachments are also capable of moving payloads to and from existing equipment in your facility. Standard lift attachments help AMRs autonomously move pallets up to 1,900 kg to and from pick-up and drop-off stands and racks. Both conveyor and lift attachments are well suited for a variety of workflows that connect islands of automation, including outbound to storage, palletizer to stretch wrapper, and bulk delivery to lineside.

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If pallets are on the ground at any point in your workflow, consider a forklift AMR, which doesn’t require any attachments and can pick up and drop off pallets from ground locations autonomously. For example, see how OTTO Lifter autonomously transports pallets up to 1,200 kg from the palletizer to the stretch wrapper at a Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods facility.

Custom attachments

In case these attachments do not meet your workflow needs, you can also evaluate custom attachments, crafted specifically for your payloads and use cases. Working with their partners, AMR vendors can even build custom solutions onto their attachments, such as the robotic arm on an OTTO 100 cart at GE Aerospace.

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Standard and custom attachments extend the capabilities of your autonomous material handling solution. Using carts, conveyors, lifts, or custom attachments, AMRs can be tailored to your unique requirements to create a custom solution that enhances your operational efficiency and connects your factory. To learn more, talk to a material handling expert today.

Written by Wes at OTTO by Rockwell Automation.

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