Weighpack subsidiary Karter has released three autonomous mobile robot (AMR) solutions targeted at a wide range of applications, from intralogistics and manufacturing to agriculture and transport of heavy products and components.
Capable of operating for eight hours after just 10 minutes of charging, the new Karter AMRs are highly agile and simple to integrate into a site’s existing operations.
Patrick van Tiel, commercial manager for AMRs at Karter, said, “These Karters are the future of material handling. They reduce a company’s reliance on human resources to carry out repetitive, labor-intensive tasks and can help lower costs and increase safety, ensuring tasks are carried out predictably and reliably every time.”
The Karter AMRs are the first result of the company’s close technical partnership with BlueBotics. Since these vehicles are driven by BlueBotics’ ANT (autonomous navigation technology) natural feature navigation, they do not require any permanent changes to a site’s infrastructure to operate effectively – such as laying magnetic tape or installing reflective targets.
The Karter AMRs are:
- Karter Kompakt: An automated pallet truck capable of carrying payloads of up to 1,500kg.
- Karter Lyft: An autonomous low-lift (500mm) forklift capable of transporting pallets weighing up to 1,000kg.
- Karter Mono: An AMR workhorse capable of transporting a wide range of payloads, such as roller cages and boxes, weighing up to 1,500kg.
Karter AMRs are fully interoperable and can be used alone or in a full connected AMR fleet – even with other-brand ANT vehicles – using BlueBotics ANT server software. The ANT server’s API can connect a Karter installation to a site’s existing WMS/MES/ERP software and seamlessly interface with equipment such as automatic doors and elevators.
Dr Nicola Tomatis, CEO of BlueBotics, commented, “These Karters bring a new level of flexibility and agility to the AMR market. They are highly compact, can recharge in no time, and thanks to the ANT navigation technology, they are accurate, reliable, quick to commission and immediately fleet-ready.”