In this episode, I was joined by Rob Sullivan at MODEX 2020. Rob is the President and CEO at AutoGuide Mobile Robot Guides. He is an innovator in our industry with 16 patents under his belt and also heading up a few different startups. We discuss how AutoGuide came to be, its hardware, software, and the future.

Key Takeaways

• AutoGuide Mobile Robots is a leading supplier of high payload autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). They provide the market with automated tuggers and forklifts. Through Rob’s background, he was able to see a whole in the market where automation was not taking place between the trailer and stocking so he wanted to automate that part of the operation which is what leads to AutoGuide.
• One very interesting thing about AutoGuide’s AMRs is that the sensors can sense if a pallet is unstable. Rob discusses what happens in this scenario and how the automated forklift can adjust to accommodate the load. What I like most about this part of the discussion is how Rob talks about the robot needing to adapt to the real world where not every load is perfect. This a great point and I am very happy to hear they are thinking in this way.
• On the software side, there are multiple facets of AutoGuide’s system. One of the most interesting aspects is that their system actually sees the inventory and has an inventory management system built-in. Where this comes in handy is optimizing a pick. The robot is able to know where the inventory is located so they can pick the best location to put away to or to pick from. This builds on top of the optimization that their system is already working on through their fleet management system.
• Rob gives us his insights on what the future holds which is an interesting business model of utilizing different modules for their automated forklifts. He discusses how they would start with their base model and then they would have different options to switch out and utilize the same robot for multiple different applications. In the future, it is all about integration that will tie everything in the operation together for Rob.