The solution is data-based and even repairs can mostly be done remotely, regardless of where the site is located.Īccording to Peter Ossendorf, DACH sales manager at Oceaneering, the company is receiving significant interest in its omni-drive Apollo AGV, which has found strong acceptance for hospital application. Moffett says the mobility of the robots ensures that if one ever breaks down, it only blocks access to one or two pallets, but the rest of the storage is still accessible to the robots in the system. The shuttle ‘taxis’ can lift 1.5 T each and can be used in racking up to 40 m high. Relative newcomer Moffett Automated Storage, co-founded by Sam Moffett, the son of the co-founder of Combilift and truck-mounted forklift pioneer, Robert Moffett, gave many visitors their first exposure to the multi-directional Moffett AS/R Taxi System, an auto storage retrieval system for pallets. The LocusBots are fully integrated within LocusOne, Locus’ intelligent, multi-bot warehouse orchestration platform, and allow for an extended range of warehouse activities. “We’re looking to empower horizontal automation in the same space, with the same user experience, under one harmonised platform with the same interface, allowing for interoperability with different form factors,” says Denis Niezgoda, vice president, Europe. The 80-plus robotics suppliers just in Hall 2 included Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) provider Locus Robotics, which used LogiMAT to announce an expansion of its range of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) with new form factors to augment the Locus Origin robot. Visitors were able to see a huge array of automated handling solutions from established players, new entrants and niche suppliers of hardware, software, control systems, sensing devices and fleet management programmers. One of the key trends in materials handling, the rise of automation, was plainly evident at LogiMAT in Stuttgart, not just in the four halls (out of 10) devoted to shuttle and conveyor systems, robots and AGVs, but even among the “traditional” manufacturers. The major manufacturers showed off automation innovations.