Florian Pestoni, CEO of InOrbit, reveals the future of robot orchestration and AMR integration in manufacturing

Florian Pestoni, InOrbit: Robotics cells with industrial robots are great at doing one specific job over and over, such as depalletizing a specific type of product mix. They typically work in enclosed environments, designed to ensure safety and create tightly controlled conditions.

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), on the other hand, provide the flexibility to stitch together the work of individual cells, offering flexibility beyond what a traditional conveyance would provide. AMRs can thus become the glue that makes the flow of material throughout a facility work, while also sharing space with people and manually operated vehicles.

What role does software play in coordinating and integrating these devices?

Florian Pestoni, InOrbit: The lines between traditional operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) are being blurred. I call it the big collision, because this is not without tension. This is evident in manufacturing environments, which are under pressure to handle smaller batches and a higher mix of increasingly personalized products. OT has traditionally been all about fixed production lines, while IT is data-driven. Modern robots are data machines, both generating massive amounts of data and also being orchestrated through dynamic software.

The companies that hold on to the way things have always been done, resisting the latest technologies like cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), are being left behind by those that embrace the power of software.