OTTO Motors and Kollmorgen today announced a strategic technical collaboration that they described as “a major milestone for the autonomous material handling industry.” The companies said they share a goal of delvering “exceptional” self-driving vehicle applications to original equipment manufacturers and systems integrators across industries globally.
“As the autonomous material handling market matures, customers will expect all vehicles in their fleet to be intelligent machines,” stated Matt Rendall, co-founder and CEO of OTTO Motors. “We’re excited to cooperate with Kollmorgen to bring our AMR [autonomous mobile robot] technology to vehicles of all shapes and sizes.”
With more than 15 years of robotics experience and over 4 million hours of production driving, OTTO Motors said its AMRs can safely deliver mission-critical materials inside factories and warehouses. The Kitchener, Ontario-based unit of Clearpath Robotics Inc. of said 70% of its customers are Fortune 500 companies, including brands such as GE and Toyota. It has been named to Fast Company’s 2023 list of “Most Innovative Companies.”
Kollmorgen offers AGVs, NDC autonomy platform
“We see a lot of things happening in the market, where interoperability amongst other things is a strong driving force, opening up for new perspectives and collaborations,” said Tobias Byfeldt, vice president and general manager of Kollmorgen Automation. “We are impressed with OTTO Motors’ offering and are excited to see what a collaboration between our two companies could mean and the value it could bring to our customers.”
Kollmorgen said it has delivered systems for automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and mobile robots with its NDC platform for more than 50 years. The Radford, Va.-based company claimed that it has “the industry’s leading ecosystem of OEM and system integrator partners,” which have deployed tens of thousands of self-driving vehicles for a variety of applications globally.
Vehicle builders can use NDC Solutions from Kollmorgen Automation AB, a Regal Rexnord brand in Molndal, Sweden, to create driverless logistics systems. The company said its platform consists of both software to manage fleets and route vehicles efficiently, and hardware for navigation and control.
With Kollmorgen NDC8, customers can “automate virtually any type of vehicle or mobile robot and integrate it into any type of material handling application,” asserted Kollmorgen.
OTTO Motors, Kollmorgen to innovate for growing customer base
Kollmorgen and OTTO Motors said they “are exploring their joint capabilities to provide innovative solutions for their growing combined customer base.”
“As the growing mobile robot industry continues to evolve, Kollmorgen and OTTO Motors are well positioned to continue as leaders in delivering cutting-edge solutions that address the needs of customers worldwide for decades to come,” they said in a press release.
Attendees at the LogiMAT trade show from April 25 to 27 in Stuttgart, Germany, can learn more about the partnership. They can see OTTO Motors' AMRs in action at Booth 1OG02 and visit Kollmorgen at Booth 6C21.
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