Mobile Robots
Three vehicle classes. One mission: move materials faster, safer, and smarter — so your people can focus on work that matters.
The machines redefining how industry moves
Every hour a worker spends walking between pick stations, pushing a trolley, or waiting for a forklift is an hour not spent on value-adding work. Intelligent mobile robots eliminate that waste at scale — running continuously, navigating autonomously, and integrating directly with warehouse management and manufacturing execution systems.
Three distinct vehicle classes have emerged to serve different operational needs: Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for flexible, human-collaborative environments; Industrial Mobile Robots (IMRs) for heavy-duty manufacturing; and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) for high-throughput, predictable transport. Understanding each is the first step to choosing the right platform for your operation.
The three vehicle classes
Each class has a distinct design philosophy, capability profile, and ideal deployment context.
What it is
An AMR is a robot that builds a map of its environment using onboard sensors — typically LiDAR, cameras, and ultrasonic detectors — and navigates that map autonomously using AI-driven path planning. Unlike older automation, AMRs require no physical infrastructure: no magnetic tape, no wires in the floor, no reflectors on the walls. They simply learn the space and get to work.
How it drives productivity
AMRs are deployed most powerfully in goods-to-person picking, where they bring shelving units or totes directly to a stationary picker — eliminating the walking that accounts for up to 70% of a picker's shift. In hospitals, they autonomously deliver medications, linen, and supplies through busy corridors without staff intervention. Because they re-route around obstacles in real time, they work safely alongside people without fencing or exclusion zones.
Key benefits
- No infrastructure investment — deploy in days, not months
- Adapts instantly to layout changes and dynamic obstacles
- Designed for safe human collaboration — no safety caging required
- Scales with demand — add or remove units without reconfiguration
- Integrates with WMS, ERP, and order management systems
Specifications
Leading vendors
How mobile robots drive productivity
The productivity gains from intelligent mobile robotics come from four compounding mechanisms — each one significant on its own, transformative in combination.
Eliminate non-value travel
Studies consistently show that warehouse workers spend 50–70% of their shift walking between locations. AMRs eliminate this entirely in goods-to-person models — the robot travels, the person stays stationary and picks. The result is a 2–3× increase in picks per hour from the same headcount.
Run continuously without fatigue
A human worker's productivity declines through a shift. A mobile robot's does not. AMRs, IMRs, and AGVs operate at consistent speed and accuracy across 24-hour periods, across seven days a week, without the variability introduced by fatigue, breaks, or shift changeovers.
Synchronise material flow with demand
Modern mobile robots integrate directly with WMS and MES systems, receiving tasks in real time and prioritising dynamically. This means materials arrive at the point of need precisely when needed — eliminating the idle time caused by waiting for a forklift, a trolley, or a colleague to complete a manual transport task.
Redeploy people to higher-value work
The most significant productivity gain is often the least measured: when robots handle repetitive transport, the people who previously did that work can be redeployed to quality control, exception handling, customer service, and other tasks that genuinely require human judgement. This is not headcount reduction — it is headcount optimisation.
AMR vs IMR vs AGV — at a glance
| AMR | IMR | AGV | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Navigation | SLAM / AI vision — no infrastructure | Multi-sensor SLAM — minimal infrastructure | Fixed guidance — tape, wire, or laser |
| Flexibility | High — adapts to layout changes | Medium–High — robust in complex layouts | Low — route changes need reconfiguration |
| Payload range | 50 kg – 1,500 kg | 500 kg – 10,000 kg | 100 kg – 60,000 kg |
| Human collaboration | Designed for it — no fencing needed | Possible with defined safety zones | Typically separated or fenced |
| Deployment speed | Days to weeks | Weeks to months | Months |
| Typical ROI | 12 – 24 months | 18 – 36 months | 24 – 48 months |
Find the right platform for your operation
Browse 180+ verified manufacturers across AMR, IMR, and AGV categories — filter by vehicle type, payload, region, and industry vertical.