10 Materials Handling Robotics Takeaways From MODEX 2022

Interoperability efforts continue

​Last but not least, growing numbers of robots of all kinds in warehouses demand ways of managing them, regardless of manufacturer.

“FedEx wants to use lots of robots, where we don’t have to worry about them communicating,” said Aaron Prather (above, right), senior technical advisor at FedEx Express, on another panel hosted by Locus Robotics.

“There’s going to be heterogeneous fleets, and the MassRobotics interoperability standard isn’t about any one company having control; it’s looking at shared resources,” noted Jason Walker (center), founder of Waypoint Robotics and now vice president at Locus.

Work is continuing on the MassRobotics standard, which was first demonstrated at A3‘s AMR and Logistics Conference last year, said Walker and Theobald. Multiple industry and government parties are interested, and more companies are welcome to join the effort, they added.