Robots are a pillar of Industry 4.0. Per SAP, autonomous mobile robots (AMR) vary greatly in size and function, from inventory scanning drones to robots for pick and place operations. Equipped with cutting-edge software, AI, sensors and machine vision, robots can perform difficult tasks and analyze/act on information they receive from their surroundings.
Robots are not a cure-all for manufacturing ills. For example, an AMR might not be justified when you compare the cost to program, deploy and maintain versus productivity gains achieved. Some robots have cyclic timings incompatible to upstream processes, which means they are now an expensive bottleneck. Robot cost is linked to task-to-robot assignments and work sequencing written into code – some code works well; some doesn’t.
MOSIMTEC is often asked to evaluate automation initiatives and develop control algorithms, test sequencing rules, and stress-test the ‘whole system’ under various demand profiles to predict performance and identify risks/bottlenecks. Using modeling & simulation to compare an AMR system versus adding labor while factoring in capacity, productivity, downtime, charging time, labor cost, etc. is critical to know if robots are the right fit.
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