b'34 Partner News Spring 2024CorporateOptimisingThe warehousing industry is changing at a faster rate than ever before. Pressures like labor shortages, changing product mixes and demand fluctuations have put a strain on the industry, often resulting in your materialbottlenecks or costly downtime. As a result, leaders are seeking ways to move materials differentlyways that enable them to adjust to the realities of less available staff and more demand variation than in years movementpast.The clear trend is towards flexible material movement. Facilities are shifting from fixed to more flexible material movement approaches, investing in systems and strategy equipment that can more easily adapt to the unpredictable demand and shifting fulfillment needs of todays dynamic economic landscape. While several technologiesincluding independent cart conveyance technologycan enable with AMRs flexibility, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are currently in the spotlight thanks to the unique advantages they offer.What are AMRs?Autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs, are intelligent, self-driving vehicles capable of making real-time decisions in complex and dynamic environments. Unlike other robotssuch as some AGVs (automated guided vehicles)that may follow a fixed By Rockwell Automation path guided by QR Codes or magnetic tape, AMRs move independently. Using sensors, cameras, and advanced algorithms to make sense of their environment, AMRs generate their own paths and independently detect and avoid obstacles. This self-navigation capability allows AMRs to be more flexibly deployed than other material movement robots with fixed infrastructure, such as conveyors, making them ideally suited for todays rapidly changing warehousing landscape.'