Technology company Continental has announced the start of volume production of its autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for the external market.
Following an internal two-year test phase at a number of Continental production locations worldwide, the AMRs are now ready for commercial use and come with a host of new and improved features as well as new use cases to meet the demands and challenges of future factories.
“We are pleased to confirm that from now on volume production of the AMRs has started in Continental’s Rheinböllen plant in Germany with the first external customer projects slated to be delivered,” said Pierre Pomper, head of autonomous mobile robots at Continental.
The AMRs form part of Continental’s product portfolio within the company’s newly established Continental Mobile Robots business area, and are designed to be an attractive shopfloor solution for several industries, including logistics and warehousing, automotive, food and beverage as well as electrical and electronics,
The AMRs have been developed to work collaboratively with humans to reduce manual activities such as driving forklift trucks, speed up transport and provide an accurate overview of shopfloor inventory and its storage location.
Small and compact yet able to carry heavy loads, the AMRs measure 1.4m long, 630mm wide and 225mm high, and can carry loads of up to 1.2 tonnes at a speed of up to 2m/sec.
Additional features include increased torque, shorter turning radius, optimised sensor coverage, improvements to its lifting mechanism design and accessibility of controls and equipment for transportation of carts, pallets and top rollers.
Furthermore, fleet management software from Kinexon, offered optionally, can turn a fleet of Continental’s AMRs into an intelligent and coordinated swarm, as well simplify and standardise the creation of orders and routes and management of the AMRs.
Continental also offers its AMRs with different top modules, with customers able to choose between carts, racks and lifting units, as well as top roller modules, designed in collaboration with robotic equipment supplier ROEQ, for transferring loads between AMRs and conveyors.
Additional customer benefits provided by Continental include consulting, sales, integration, as well as service, support and maintenance contracts and 24-hour support.
