Mobile robots get their configuration data from the Enterprise Manager appliance, which helps optimize traffic flow by sharing each robot’s position and trajectory with others in its vicinity. This allows each robot to make path adjustments to avoid potential conflicts. Enterprise Manager also saves manufacturers significant amounts of time in uploading configuration data and ensures that updates are less prone to error. Enterprise Manager enables operators to manage map and configuration updates from a central communication point so that they can be pushed out to each mobile robot in the fleet. The system also provides a queuing manager to receive job requests from call buttons and automation equipment, and dispatch jobs to the robots in the fleet. Robots can work within close range of one another without colliding thanks to the system’s knowledge of the location and path of each vehicle.

Business Need

Omron’s Ayabe factory was seeking to upgrade its FA components manufacturing system with a fully automated solution for transporting works-in-progress.

Unique Solution

The Ayabe factory engineering team chose Omron’s unique LD mobile robots, which use self-guiding software to navigate their way through dynamic environments, for materials transport.

Factory Benefits

Overall materials handling was reduced by 75% while lead times dropped by 80%, and the LD new solution can be easily implemented in other factories as well without incurring new design costs.