CSCMP’s prestigious Supply Chain Xchange web site in October featured a guest column written by Roboteon Chief Marketing Officer Dan Gilmore and SVP of Product Raj Senguttuvan on the important topic of robot interoperability.

Introducing the post, Supply Chain Xchange notes that “In the future, companies will most likely be running different types of robots from different vendors in the same facility. Companies need to prepare for this reality by deciding how these different robots will communicate with one another.”

After commenting on the high interest in warehouse robotics generally, and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) specifically, Gilmore and Senguttuvan note the explosion in warehouse robot vendors, with more than 50 providers exhibiting at the big MODEX show in Atlanta in March 2024.

And that fact has many ramifications for shippers, the authors write.

“While the use of robots in distribution is still early in its maturity, for many if not most companies, the future is one of heterogeneous robots—different types of bots from different vendors operating in a given facility,” Gilmore and Senguttuvan note.

They add that with the growth in robotics, these different robots will often need to communicate with each other—either directly or indirectly through use of an integration platform—to automate the flow of information and work.

“This is broadly termed ‘interoperability,’ and it is an important concept for companies planning warehouse robotics initiatives, with the ultimate goal of achieving a ‘plug and play’ environments where new robots can easily be added to the automation mix and processes adapted over time,” Gilmore and Senguttuvan say.

The rest of the article addresses interoperability use cases, the role of industry standards, advanced integration capabilities from adopting a platform strategy, and more.

The full article can be found here: The pressing need for warehouse robotics interoperability