OTTO Motors this week released software to provide customers more visibility into fleet performance to support the world’s largest autonomous mobile robot, or AMR, deployments.
“Over the last few years, we’ve seen facilities test AMRs for automating material handling,” stated Jay Judkowitz, vice president of product at OTTO Motors. “Today, they are no longer testing; they are operationalizing. As a result, our customers’ needs are evolving, and we are with them.”
“This software release is about giving operators better visibility and depth of their fleet’s performance, including dashboards, analytics, video playbacks, and troubleshooting capabilities that are unmatched in the market,” he added. “By having all of this data, our customers are able to quickly direct their valuable labor on where to look to eliminate inefficiencies.”
Kitchener, Ontario-based OTTO Motors is a unit of Clearpath Robotics Inc. that provides AMRs for material handling inside manufacturing facilities and warehouses. With more than 3 million hours of driving experience, the company said it enables mission-critical deliveries in the most demanding industrial environments.
Seventy percent of OTTO’s customers are Fortune 500 companies, including brands such as GE and Toyota.
Fleet Manager adds snapshot, analytics, dashboard
OTTO Motors said its tools enable users to analyze their systems, identify risks, and optimize their material flow. Manufacturers are using analytics and dashboards to make sense of floor data in order to visualize key performance indicators (KPIs) at a glance, drill down into specific vehicles or actionable tasks, and spot bottlenecks.
The latest update includes capabilities for independent troubleshooting and fleet analysis. Customers can now play back “snapshots,” which are detailed logs of Fleet Manager, robot actions, and statuses presented in video form.
They show what the robot was “seeing” and “thinking” at the time of an issue, said OTTO Motors. Because snapshot playback can be done inside Fleet Manager without calling customer support, customers can now immediately diagnose problems on their own.
The system shows customers a historical timeline of exceptions and can create snapshots to send to customer support or for internal playback. Users can now review the history of exceptions, spot trends, correlate them to events in their facility, and diagnose root causes.
The new Fleet Analytics tool provides access and insight into the deployed AMR fleet, according to OTTO Motors. Operators can find jobs, places, robots, or tasks that are slow or failure-prone so they know where to target process improvements to increase material handling flow for return on investment (ROI).
In addition, the new Fleet Dashboard, designed for a large-screen TV, provides an at-a-glance status of the fleet from across the floor, providing another way for end users to stay on top of their operations.
OTTO Motors at Automate 2022
At Automate in Detroit this week, OTTO Motors demonstrated its AMRs moving pallets of real goods, including packaged foods and heavy appliances.
“They can compensate by up to 15 degrees in orientation, and one car company wants a robot to come every 45 seconds,” Judkowitz told Robotics 24/7. “This is no research project. We're also working with forklift dealers.”
“A lot of integrators and users have stopped by, and they're very interested in seeing the KPIs,” he added. “Our Fleet Manager handles all OTTO systems in an environment. Our biggest implementation was for a food and beverage company, and we've also seen automotive, consumer packaged goods, and fast-moving consumer goods.”
Judkowitz cited customer reference cases including Faurecia and Danfoss. “Honeywell mentioned its collaboration with OTTO in its latest earnings call,” he noted. “We're thrilled to be working with partners such as them and Boston Dynamics.”
At LogiMAT in Stuttgart, Germany, last week, OTTO Motors announced that it was partnering with ek robotics, a European manufacturer and integrator of AGVs.
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