Industrial Automation Magazine India

OMRON launches Mobile Robot MD-650 with medium payload range

Published on : Saturday 23-09-2023

Provides increased efficiency, intelligent and autonomous material transport through integrated control technology

Mumbai, September 22, 2023: OMRON, a global leader in factory automation including Industry 4.0 solutions has announced the launch of MD-650 autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that provides greater efficiency at production sites. With the addition of this medium-payload (650 kg) mobile robot, OMRON has expanded the lineup of autonomous robots to appeal to a wider variety of part and material transport applications.

OMRON's existing lineup of mobile robots ranges from 60 to 1500 kg, and the MD-650 provides a mid-weight range option (650 kg). Its unique control technology enables safe and smooth transport that can be easily implemented at production sites where people and machines work in the same area.

According to Mr Sameer Gandhi, MD, OMRON Automation, India, “Matching the pace and needs of the industry for high-speed pick & place, and human collaborative robotics solutions, OMRON Automation Business in India is expanding its diversified Robotics portfolio. This new addition to our AMR family is to strengthen and enhance the solution for warehousing (pallet transfer to warehouse), and line-side replenishment, as well as aid flexible manufacturing, thus generating value for our customers to make hassle-free and automated material movement. It provides operators relief from manual tasks for transferring material while ensuring the safety of human beings working in the same space. We look forward to collaborating with the right solution partners to co-create and develop advanced industrial solutions based on the human-machine collaborative technology the robot offers.”

In recent years, manufacturing sites have become increasingly important not only in pursuit of productivity and quality but also in creating workplaces that reduce the burden of repetitive work for workers. There are increasing demands to improve efficiency in part- and material-transport operations that repeatedly carry heavy materials, work-in-process products, and finished products through automation to reduce the heavy physical burden on the workers. In the automotive industry, for example, the development of a high-mix, low-volume production system needs dispersal of materials to multiple locations, and the increased frequency of inter-process transfer of small lots of work-in-process has increased the physical burden on workers.

However, even if the optimal robot for each process is selected, controlling a large fleet of mobile robots requires different management systems and processes for each robot model. This requires investment in each system and management to ensure smooth transportation of a wide variety of heavy objects.

The unique "OMRON Fleet Manager" software enables integrated control of up to 100 mobile robots on a single system, eliminating the need for multiple fleet management systems, and automatically selects the optimal mobile robot for each process based on payload and availability.

OMRON aims to add another model with a medium payload range of up to 900 kg in the near future to further strengthen the product lineup.