OTTO Motors, which develops industrial autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), is to enter the Japanese market, in its first expansion outside of North America.
The company – the industrial division of Clearpath Robotics – is partnering with Altech, a specialised trading company that imports advanced machinery and equipment form Europe and the USA to support Japanese industrial companies.
Richard Baker, chief revenue officer, OTTO Motors, said: “This is a big moment for OTTO Motors. Our innovative self-driving vehicles have been helping modernise factories throughout the United States and Canada since 2015.
“OTTO Motors entered the Japan market in 2018, and with several successful deployments completed, we are expanding our efforts in Japan working alongside Altech.”
The two companies said they have already begun serving customers in the automotive, food, and industrial equipment industries in Japan.
This includes Hirotec, a Tier 1 automotive parts supplier to Mazda, which installed three OTTO self-driving vehicles within its Hiroshima plant to deliver Mazda door panels to welding cells as part of a mission-critical process.
According to OTTO Motors, the materials handling platform allowed Hirotec to reconfigure its processes to improve material movement efficiency and increase throughput.
By installing the vehicles, Hirotec could eliminate the need for eight legacy autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs).
This was the second deployment of OTTO systems within Hirotec, the first being deployed at Hirotec America in 2017 to help automate spare parts production.
OTTO Motors said demand in Japan for self-driving industrial vehicles in factories and warehouses is expected to be particularly high because of the country’s aging population.
“Having fewer young people than older people means that there is not enough labor supply to do all the work needed to power the economy,” said Baker.
“Japanese manufacturers must rely on self-driving vehicles and other forms of industrial automation because there simply are not enough humans to do all the work that needs to be done.”
The global market for these mobile industrial robots is forecast to exceed US$224bn (£172m) by 2030, according to ABI Research.
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