Otto Motors, a provider of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and Siemens Canada have a new partnership to develop Industry 4.0 technologies.
The two companies will be exploring areas ranging from high-performance collaborative mobile robot control to physical asset tracking using Real Time Location Systems (RTLS). RTLS uses a locating system specifically designed for industrial applications.
“Siemens’ global presence and breadth of product portfolio has been clear to us for as long as we’ve been in business,” said Ryan Gariepy, CTO of Otto Motors.
“Using Siemens controllers to power Otto fleets will allow our AMRs to achieve a new level of driving performance without compromising safety.”
Otto Motors provides autonomous material handling inside manufacturing facilities and warehouses. Otto’s line of AMRs deliver materials to the production line or order-picking stations. Seventy percent of Otto’s customers are Fortune 500 companies and include some of the world’s most recognized brands, including GE and Toyota.
“Siemens RTLS systems will enable Otto Motors’ customers to dynamically locate autonomous mobile robots and other assets with up to 30 cm accuracy,” explained Joris Myny, SVP, Digital Industries, Siemens Canada.
“The result is an optimized fleet and precise AMR routing as well as enhanced bottleneck and collision avoidance. Any asset or person with an RTLS transponder can be seen and tracked, which opens up additional asset tracking use cases beyond the AMR implementation.”
Most recently, Siemens customized its industrial controller development tools in a way that allows Otto to develop, test, and deploy controls code to better align with the needs of mobile autonomous systems. This has permitted Otto to develop, validate, and deploy everything from minor improvements to entirely new robots into production over four times faster than previously possible.
Since 1912 Siemens Canada has has been active across the country, focusing on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. The company has approximately 2,500 employees from coast-to-coast and 24 office and production facilities across Canada.
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