Bosch Rexroth AMR Improves Safety and Productivity of Manufacturing Facilities

Rexroth North America’s MP1000R is a new 1000 kg payload capacity autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that can automate material handling applications without additional external infrastructure. The AMR improves safety and productivity, and offers greater flexibility in manufacturing spaces.

Using Bosch Rexroth’s ROKIT Locator Software, the MP1000R is able to navigate autonomously in highly dynamic environments without additional infrastructure. The MP1000R is a flexible and scalable solution which can replace manual forklifts and tuggers in manufacturing spaces, leading to improved efficiency and help protect workers from potential injury.

When used for industrial material handling tasks, forklifts and tuggers are often involved in thousands of warehouse accidents each year, some of which can be fatal. The MP1000R can safely and autonomously transport finished goods, raw material components and work in process on pallets or shelves within your factory or warehouse with flexibility similar to human-operated pallet jacks, forklifts or tuggers.

In collaboration with leading AMR provider Geek+, Bosch Rexroth developed the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology for the MP1000R. The CE- and ETL-certified robot features hybrid navigation with SLAM + QR Code, 360-degree obstacle detection together with anti-collision bumpers and emergency stop buttons in the front and rear.

In addition to reducing safety risks, the MP1000R offers more flexibility to material handling processes. The MP1000R can lift a max payload of 1000 kilograms on a standard rack or shelf base. It can also interface with customer specific equipment using a square or roller top conveyor at customized heights. A large-capacity 39Ah lithium battery provides continuous power for the MP1000R for a typical 8-hour work shift via autonomous opportunity charging.

Its compact size and zero turning radius make it ideal for operating in tight spaces or down to aisle widths of 1400mm (55 inches). Its fully loaded moving speed of 1.5 meters per second makes it perfect for moving pallets and shelves between warehouses or automatic storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) to production areas or shipping docks. Its location accuracy of +/-10mm enables materials feeding to the production line, work-in-progress (WIP) transfer and finished goods transport.

The MP1000R has minimal IT requirements and can easily interface with existing systems. It connects to on-site servers using existing wireless infrastructure and users can trigger robot actions via a web browser or handheld device. APIs are also available to connect the robot software to ERP, MES, WMS, PLC and more.