Review of Autonomous Mobile Robots for the Warehouse Environment

TL;DR

This review paper discusses recent advances in autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for warehouse environments, highlighting technological developments, current industry examples, and future research directions to improve efficiency and human-robot collaboration.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent hardware, control systems, and industry implementations of AMRs in warehouses, identifying future research opportunities.

Findings

AMRs reduce warehouse operational costs and human fatigue.

Recent hardware and software advancements have enhanced AMR capabilities.

Industry examples demonstrate successful integration of AMRs in warehouses.

Abstract

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) have been a rapidly expanding research topic for the past decade. Unlike their counterpart, the automated guided vehicle (AGV), AMRs can make decisions and do not need any previously installed infrastructure to navigate. Recent technological developments in hardware and software have made them more feasible, especially in warehouse environments. Traditionally, most wasted warehouse expenses come from the logistics of moving material from one point to another, and is exhaustive for humans to continuously walk those distances while carrying a load. Here, AMRs can help by working with humans to cut down the time and effort of these repetitive tasks, improving performance and reducing the fatigue of their human collaborators. This literature review covers the recent developments in AMR technology including hardware, robotic control, and system control. This paper also discusses examples of current AMR producers, their robots, and the software that is used to control them. We conclude with future research topics and where we see AMRs developing in the warehouse environment.