MiR predicts that, driven by both national policies and the demand for flexible manufacturing, China's autonomous mobile robot market will maintain strong growth momentum in 2023 and accelerate its large-scale deployment, penetrating into more diverse and complex scenarios. This will also place higher demands on the software and ecosystem capabilities of the AMR industry.
Zhang Yu, Sales Director of MiR Autonomous Mobile Robots in China, stated:
Domestic manufacturing demand and government policy support have created tremendous opportunities for the AMR industry. I am confident in the potential of the Chinese AMR market and its future development. Standing at the starting point of 2023, we hope to continue contributing to the "Made in China 2025" initiative. While continuously strengthening our own hardware and software capabilities, we will further collaborate with local ecosystem partners to explore AMR functionality expansion, thereby fully meeting the diverse needs of customers in complex scenarios across more fields.
Trend 1
To cope with the fast pace of flexible manufacturing, embracing AMR (Automatic Mobile Manufacturing) is an inevitable trend for enterprises.
As market demands in the digital age become increasingly sophisticated, fragmented, and diversified, users are placing higher demands on delivery cycles. Under the C2B model, end-user needs drive companies to produce on demand. To respond to increasingly frequent order changes and delivery pressures, many manufacturing companies are improving production flexibility and agility through production line logistics automation. However, traditional AGV robots require the laying of wires or magnetic strips as "tracks," limiting them to fixed routes. Expanding/changing work areas is both expensive and time-consuming, failing to meet the demands of flexible production and incurring high deployment costs, deterring many companies.
In the face of the fast pace of flexible manufacturing, AMRs (Automatic Mobile Robots) are undoubtedly the trend, as they eliminate the need for track laying, are easy to expand and change work areas, and are more flexible and intelligent. However, although many AMR products have emerged on the market, the relevant safety certifications for many are still unclear, and route planning and setting still require virtual fixed lines, which cannot flexibly add points. During operation, these AMRs cannot autonomously avoid obstacles or plan paths in real time, requiring manual intervention. Furthermore, task switching also requires production line shutdowns, which is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. The programming logic involved in the entire deployment and use process is very complex, requiring professional personnel to operate multiple stages, and often necessitates the installation of additional software.
As a global leader in the mobile robot market, MiR's AMR possesses core safety certifications for mobile robots and boasts independent safety and control systems. In terms of obstacle avoidance, MiR AMRs can autonomously navigate around pedestrians and obstacles, planning and adjusting routes in real time to flexibly adapt to changes in environment and tasks. They can stably move between different production lines, units, warehouses, and floors, efficiently and flexibly performing tasks such as picking and handling. Operationally, MiR AMRs can be controlled via web pages and smart devices. The graphical programming interface is highly intuitive, allowing employees to start using them without prior programming experience.
Furthermore, all of MiR AMR's aforementioned functions are based on a high level of safety. All MiR AMRs are equipped with dual laser scanners, providing a 360-degree field of view, allowing them to constantly anticipate their surroundings and replan their routes as they move. In addition, MiR AMRs' sensing vision is unaffected by light or dust, boasts high scanning accuracy, and has received high-level safety certifications, ensuring safety even in noisy and crowded dynamic environments.
The flexibility of MiR AMRs is not only reflected in the deployment and operation aspects mentioned above, but also in their ability to quickly replicate successful deployment experiences from one market to more markets. DENSO, a leading supplier of mobile devices, is a prime example. As one of MiR's largest global customers, DENSO's previous experience deploying MiR AMRs in multiple factories across Europe, Asia, and the United States has built a high level of trust in MiR products. Consequently, its 7.4-hectare powertrain component factory in Athens, Tennessee, also chose MiR, simultaneously deploying six MiR250 autonomous mobile robots, efficiently extending the successful deployment experience of MiR AMRs to more cities. Because DENSO's factory environment frequently changes, requiring robots to periodically change routes, after testing AMR products from several different suppliers, DENSO found that MiR AMRs have significant advantages in flexibility, safety, and ease of use—MiR AMRs are very intuitive and easy to use, quickly mapping and adjusting to achieve autonomous navigation, without requiring the construction of expensive infrastructure on the factory floor.
Trend 2
AMR is accelerating its large-scale deployment, and multi-machine collaboration relies on superior software capabilities.
As the world's largest manufacturing nation, China is accelerating its automation upgrades across various industries, driven by national policies such as the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Robotics Industry" and "Made in China 2025." With the maturation of AMR (Automatic Mobile Robot) technology, its flexibility, reliability, efficiency, and adaptability are gaining increasing popularity among enterprises. Many companies have already established clusters of hundreds or even thousands of AMRs, and AMRs are rapidly moving towards large-scale deployment.
MiR believes that software capabilities are key to accelerating the large-scale deployment of AMRs across various industries. This primarily refers to the AMR software itself; high-quality software enhances the AMR's intelligence, allowing users to issue commands more quickly and making robot operation safer, more stable, and more precise. Secondly, the operation of multiple AMRs in a cluster places higher demands on the intelligence and collaboration of the AMRs and scheduling systems, thus requiring superior AMR fleet management software. MiR's self-developed fleet management software, MiR Fleet, can simultaneously manage up to 100 AMRs operating collaboratively, enabling 24/7 multi-site delivery. Furthermore, the software must be open, easily integrating with various communication, analytics, and safety monitoring software, and allowing for seamless integration of AMRs with existing customer ERP and WMS systems.
MiR understands the importance of software and continuously iterates on it. Recently, MiR released a completely upgraded software version. After the upgrade, AMR can make more accurate judgments and react more promptly to its surroundings, achieving significantly higher operational efficiency. Simultaneously, at the operational level, the redesigned user interface further enhances overall usability, offering multiple user levels that can be easily operated via desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones. Furthermore, the new software further strengthens security protection in accordance with the IEC 62443 cybersecurity standard. IEC 62443 is an internationally recognized standard for information security in industrial automation control systems, setting stringent requirements for industrial information security.
FORVIA, one of the world's top ten automotive parts suppliers, has deployed 14 MiR AMRs at its Faurecia Green Mobility Pisek plant in the Czech Republic, using MiR Fleet for fleet management. The plant is extremely busy, with palletizers, trolleys, forklifts, and other logistics equipment and personnel constantly moving about, necessitating efficient coordination of these 14 AMRs to ensure safety. Under the coordination of MiR Fleet, these AMRs can operate around the clock, efficiently meeting the production needs of three shifts. Communication between the AMRs and the doors and strapping machines is fully automated, requiring no operator assistance.
trend
As AMRs penetrate more diverse and complex scenarios, they place higher demands on ecosystem capabilities.
Looking back at 2022, from the Winter Olympics at the beginning of the year to the China International Import Expo at the end, the market witnessed a richer array of robotics applications. From cooking robots in smart restaurants to logistics robots in media centers, from temperature-measuring robots in public areas to companion robots, AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots) are penetrating from typical industrial fields into more diverse scenarios. The diverse needs in complex scenarios place very high demands on the scalability of AMR functions.
The scalability of robot functionality can be considered from two aspects. First, its ability to expand its functional scope through collaboration with other technologies. MiR AMR, through the MiRGo platform, aggregates a variety of rigorously tested solutions developed by partners, including frames/racks, traction devices, lifting devices, conveyors, robotic arms, disinfection modules, and motorized stations. Through MiRGo, users can access dozens of out-of-the-box solutions and hundreds of applications, extending the uses and functions of AMRs. Furthermore, AMRs can be paired with collaborative robot arms. If the autonomous navigation capability of the AMR chassis replaces the walking function of human legs, then the collaborative robot arm replaces the function of human arms; the combination of the two further expands the application scenarios of robots.
With its open and flexible scalability, MiR has been able to significantly expand its business into broader fields while continuing to deepen its presence in typical industrial scenarios such as automotive and electronics. For example, in the medical field, MiR's AMRs can be used for disinfection in public places and for transporting medical equipment and medicines in various departments and wards of hospitals, effectively reducing the workload of medical staff and allowing them to focus entirely on patient care. Currently, MiR AMRs have been adopted by many well-known hospitals in the medical field, including Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen Bao'an District Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Shanghai Tongji Hospital, and the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (Zhijiang Campus). Furthermore, in the fields of scientific research and education, MiR's AMR technology has been applied in daily teaching and research work by many Chinese universities, such as Wuhan Shipbuilding Vocational College, helping to simulate real production environments and ensuring that students and researchers master advanced automated production line design, deployment, and cutting-edge equipment operation skills to the greatest extent possible.
Currently, hundreds of customers worldwide from the manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare sectors have adopted MiR's innovative robots. These companies range in size from large multinational corporations to medium-sized local enterprises from various countries and regions.
