OMRON has announced the launch of the MD-650 and MD-900 medium-payload (650 kg and 900 kg) autonomous mobile robots (AMR). These additions expand OMRON’s line up of autonomous robots to meet the needs of a wide variety of part and material transport applications, providing greater efficiency at production sites.

Manufacturing sites today focus on productivity and quality, while creating workplaces that reduce the physical burden on workers. In automotive manufacturing for example, automating part and material transport operations is key. This includes the movement of heavy work-in-process products and finished products, as well as the frequent inter-process transfers of small lots of WIP material in high-mix, low-volume production systems. Autonomous mobile robots, with smart fleet management software, can take over these heavy and repetitive tasks.

OMRON’s existing lineup of mobile robots ranges from 60 to 1500 kg, and the MD-650 and MD-900 provide a new mid-weight range option (650 kg / 900 kg). Their unique control technology enables safe and smooth transport that can be easily implemented at production sites where people and machines work in the same area.

The unique OMRON Fleet Manager software enables integrated control of up to 100 mobile robots on a single system, eliminates the need for multiple fleet management systems, and automatically selects the optimal mobile robot for each process based on payload and availability.