End Users in Logistics and Manufacturing are Demanding Robot Orchestration

去年我参加in theA3会议自动移动机器人和物流, in Memphis. The location was no coincidence: Memphis is the global headquarters for联邦快递，最大的物流公司之一，全球运营。对我来说，一个亮点是在机器人空间中登上舞台，包括联邦快递的Aaron Prather。

亚伦在有关机器人互操作性的会议上提出了一个有力的观点，这是Inorbit使命最大化每个机器人潜力的主题。

“So, if you are one of those companies that is on the fence, you’re gonna have to pick pretty quickly, because us end users, we know where we’re going.

And if you’re not onboard, there’s probably not going to be a second chance. I’m being dead serious.”

这re’s no ambiguity: Aaron clearly put robot developers on notice that they need to play well with the community, including other robot vendors and cloud solutions like InOrbit.

Fortunately, many robot vendors are listening and working on creating interoperability protocols.Daniel Theobald，首席执行官兼创始人Vecna Robotics，是MassRobotics在AMR互操作性标准方面工作的团队。在2020年的文章中, Theobald said the standard was a“crucial milestone for the industry,”添加“正是这种竞争性的合作和从该领域最伟大的思想中的思想结合在一起，使该行业的前进速度比任何一个供应商否则都要快。”

同时，在其他标准上继续工作，例如欧洲协会处理VDA 5050标准，以及由高级机器人技术（ARM）研究所在西门子技术，联邦快递，Yaskawa Motoman，Waypoint Robotics和孟菲斯大学的参与。

在我在A3会议上的面板上的演讲中，我展示了一个market map from Logistics iQAGV-AMR市场。我把它叫做一个视力表,because there are so many logos that it’s hard to see the individual players – it lists more than 600 vendors, and because it’s easier, faster, and cheaper to create an AMR than ever, the map is only a subset with new companies entering the space regularly.

回到亚伦：“Florian had that whole chart up there, there’s options out there. So the whole thing is, if you’re not in that eye chart … you’re going to have to really think about it.”

亚伦（Aaron）是当今机器人技术中最良好，高度联系的人之一。他还拥有机器人技术中最酷的工作之一：他可以使用所有最新，最出色的技术来“玩”，这可以帮助FedEx自动化。我采访了他earlier in the year forthe RobOps Masters series我为机器人操作小组，他分享了以下内容：

“FedEx is not alone as an end user in pushing interoperability as the thing we need to address (...) It would be great if one [company] can provide the robot that does all my stuff, [but] that’s not going to happen.”

He went on to explain: “I have so many use cases across the globe, each one’s different. As a [robot] manufacturer, do you really want to build my pallet-moving robot, and my package-moving robot, and my security robot, and my cleaning robot? And who knows what I’ll think of next, but I’ll need a robot for it.”

亚伦是机器人互操作性的孜孜不倦的拥护者。他不仅倡导联邦快递自己的需求，还倡导其他物流公司，消费包装商品（CPG）品牌，甚至不同行业的制造商。

亚伦在A3会议上说，他与主要制造商进行了对话，后者证实：“我们需要机器人在这里做到这一点，该机器人需要越过该区域才能执行任务。因此，这不仅仅是物流的事情。现在，物流可能是最大的推动力，但是我们已经有大制造商在说：这也是一个问题。”

我nteroperability and its more advanced sibling Orchestration have always beena priority for InOrbit，但亚伦当然强调了它的重要性。在接下来的几年中，对于部署机器人来处理多品牌舰队的企业将变得至关重要。这些车队的操作不仅需要一个玻璃窗格，还需要一个抽象层，该层允许操作员拥有高机器人正常运行时间，而无需学习每个机器人供应商可能使用的术语或特定功能。

You cancheck out the full A3 panelhere, which included additional commentary from Vecna’s这obaldandJose Luis Susa Rinconfrom Siemens.