ABB Robotics added cellular robots to its portfolio when it acquired ASTI in 2021. | Supply: ABB Robotics
Autonomous cellular robots, or AMRs, have grown from a distinct segment expertise to an more and more widespread a part of warehouses prior to now 10 years. However now, the AMR {industry} is dealing with some challenges.
In July, Work together Evaluation lowered its forecast for the AMR {industry} by $800 million. The market analysis agency cited a posh mixture of geopolitical, financial, and industry-specific challenges.
On the identical time, international labor challenges open the door for AMRs to be deployed at an excellent bigger scale within the coming years.
Saurabh Chandra, founder and CEO of Ati Motors; Florian Pestoni, co-founder and CEO of InOrbit; and Vaithy Kandasamy, international AMR portfolio supervisor at ABB Robotics, shared insights with The Robotic Report on the place the market is headed.
Finish customers face related challenges all over the world
All over the world, and throughout industries, it’s changing into increasingly tough to search out individuals to do mundane, repetitive duties. With headquarters within the U.S. and India, Ati Motors has finished work in Mexico and throughout Asia, giving Chandra a very international perspective. As well as, the corporate does most of its work in manufacturing, a comparatively new {industry} for AMRs.
“Manufacturing has globalized properly over the previous 50 to 100 years, and there’s a whole lot of finest follow sharing amongst producers. Many of the manufacturing environments are very related the world over,” he mentioned. “One other factor I anticipated to be totally different was the starvation for this type of automation. Surprisingly, it’s the identical in every single place, no matter labor prices.”
Regardless of the nation or value of labor, it’s tough to search out individuals for manufacturing roles. “It’s a worldwide phenomenon that the youthful technology doesn’t wish to do eight hours of senseless work,” mentioned Chandra. “I feel repeating the identical movement 100 occasions isn’t one thing people have been designed to do.”
InOrbit works intently with finish customers in a variety of industriesindustries to assist them optimize their operations with its software program, and Pestoni has seen an analogous development.
“Numerous the tip customers we discuss to are dealing with related challenges, no matter what {industry} they’re in,” he noticed. “Numerous them have labor scarcity challenges, particularly within the type of duties which can be possibly extra repetitive and fewer thrilling. It’s more durable to draw individuals to these sorts of jobs.”
As extra nations are seeing shrinking and getting older workforces, and immigration slows, Pestoni mentioned this downside isn’t going away anytime quickly.
“Earlier than, [users] might need solely used robots in important duties that have been super-repetitive and intensely well-defined,” he mentioned. “These are the traditional functions of commercial robots, like in automotive. Now, they’re considering they want that [automation] for a lot of extra workflows.”
AI presents new AMR alternatives
Applied sciences that make AMRs simpler to deploy, service, and work with might be essential for large-scale deployments. This is the reason Ati Motors and ABB are working to combine the newest AI applied sciences into their robots.
“LLMs [large language models] and generative AI are revolutionizing human-robot interplay without having for specialised packages,” defined Kandasamy. “Robotic programs can work together with people utilizing easy spoken directions and even by recognizing a hand gesture. The system can be taught repeatedly by itself to optimize the fleet efficiency and productiveness.”
“Unpredictable or complicated environments may be higher solved with enhanced decision-making by AI, particularly LLMs,” he added.
“It might additionally allow smarter selections resembling fleet/mission administration, fault diagnostics, predictive upkeep, and so on. This democratizes entry to automation, eradicating the necessity for superior technical expertise and accelerating adoption throughout new sectors.”
However generative AI isn’t simply useful for the human interplay facet of issues. Bodily AI can also be changing into an vital matter in robotics.
“AI is enhancing every little thing from AMRs’ capacity to select, place, and deal with bigger payloads, in addition to their capacity to map and navigate by way of dynamic environments,” Kandasamy mentioned. “AI is giving robots unprecedented ranges of velocity, accuracy, and payload carrying capacity, enabling them to tackle extra duties in settings like versatile factories, warehouses, logistics facilities, and laboratories.”
“AMRs outfitted with ABB’s new AI-powered visible SLAM expertise have superior mapping and navigation expertise, granting new ranges of autonomy, whereas tremendously lowering the infrastructure wanted by earlier generations of guided robots,” he asserted. “AI-enabled functionalities resembling object recognition, stacking, free navigation, and so on., can additional improve flexibility and productiveness. This paves the way in which for a shift from linear manufacturing strains to dynamic networks, creating vital efficiencies and taking up extra boring, soiled, and harmful duties to allow staff to take up extra rewarding jobs.”
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Uncertainty round tariffs causes concern
Rising U.S. and international tariffs have been one of many components that Work together Evaluation cited in downgrading its cellular robotic market forecast. The agency’s International Financial Coverage Uncertainty (GEPU) Index hit an all-time excessive of 430 in January 2025. This degree of uncertainty exceeded these of the 2008 monetary disaster and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Within the meantime, many firms are adopting a “wait-and-see” method, delaying strategic investments in warehouse automation and infrastructure. This can be a development Ati Motors’ Chandra has seen firsthand.
“It’s not a lot the tariffs, however the uncertainty, which is attending to individuals,” he mentioned. “That generally turns into an element within the intent getting delayed. Folks say, ‘Why don’t we let this settle and take a look at it subsequent quarter?’”
Chandra mentioned he believes that when tariff ranges are finalized, the AMR market will enhance. “I feel we’re attending to a degree the place the uncertainty, hopefully, will scale back. Though the tariffs are excessive, they’re uniformly excessive for nearly all people,” he mentioned.
ABB is taking a longer-term take a look at the difficulty.
“If there’s a higher-tariff state of affairs for a chronic time, international AMR gamers could think about an area manufacturing footprint for the U.S. market,” Kandasamy mentioned. “There can nonetheless be value challenges because of some key imported elements. If the general AMR answer value will increase, it must be compensated for by sooner commissioning to take care of the engaging ROI [return-on-investment] ranges. Total, the U.S. AMR market is sizable in addition to vital for international gamers.”
AMR tech matures as new markets beckon
The AMR market is maturing, and the robotics {industry} has solved a lot of its core expertise issues, in line with Chandra. It’s now shifting on to fixing “second-tier” points.
“Change administration and adoption within the massive manufacturing giants, and doing that final inch of automation,” he mentioned. “That turns into difficult, as a result of it turns into customized. That is tough to productize.”
“We’re actually considering, ‘Can we construct smallish, peripheral merchandise which may be dragged and dropped into numerous deployments, moderately than you construct them from scratch in every single place?’” Chandra continued.
ABB is seeking to new industries for deployment alternatives. Kandasamy highlighted automotive, manufacturing, logistics, e-commerce, and warehousing as extra established markets.
“Extra adaptation may be anticipated in electronics; stock administration; and repair sectors resembling lodges, eating places, and healthcare,” Kandasamy mentioned. “New AMR functions in clear room, chilly room, hygiene, and unsafe environments require particular design concerns and extra certifications. Promising clean-room functions, which require contamination-free automation, embody semiconductor, battery cell manufacturing, and medical laboratories.”
Regardless of challenges within the {industry}, InOrbit’s Pestoni mentioned curiosity in AMRs is up. “I feel what has modified, particularly not too long ago, [is] there’s extra urge for food to undertake and to undertake sooner. It’s in additional locations, so I feel it’s a very thrilling time to be in robotics,” he mentioned.
