As robot adoption increases in industrial enterprises, companies are finding that they have to work with multiple vendors as most are specializing in their area of expertise.

PS, “robot adoption” sounds like a whole different industry.

Problem is: Interoperability. Robots from different vendors don’t and can’t always talk to each other. Increased automation means working with more robots from more companies, and an enterprise doesn’t want to find itself with a facility full of robots that don’t know how to work together.

In TechCrunch, Brian Heater pointed out that, “Cross-platform interoperability is a major holy grail for the industry…the goal [full facility autonomy] can’t be achieved by relying on a single company.”

Interoperability is important for many reasons:

Flexibility and Adaptability: Interoperability allows different robots from various manufacturers to communicate and work together—enterprises aren’t limited to a single robot model or brand.

Scalability: Interoperability facilitates the scalability of production processes and of robot programs in general. Enterprises can easily integrate additional robots or reconfigure existing ones without facing significant compatibility issues.

Cost-Effectiveness: Interoperability eliminates the need for a single manufacturer's proprietary technology and enables industrial enterprises to select robots based on their specific requirements.

Innovation: By fostering interoperability, industrial enterprises encourage innovation within the robotics industry. It promotes the emergence of new technologies and solutions that can benefit industrial automation as a whole.

A New Standard

MassRobotics saw this issue and determined that they had the expertise to bring together industry experts to start building some data exchange standards.

Tom Ryden, Executive Director of MassRobotics, told Heater that customers were running into problems and asking for help with robots communicating with each other. He said, “So we looked around and didn’t see anything. [We asked if] we could help and create a very low lift, very simple standard…We released that about a year and a half ago.”

In October 2022, MassRobotics Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) Interoperability Working Group released its initial set of standards. The group has continued to gather and build out standards, working from the mission to: “Develop standards that will allow organizations to deploy autonomous mobile robots AMRs from multiple vendors and have them work together in the same environment, better realizing the promise of warehouse and factory automation.”

The standard is not trying to make decisions and send instructions to robots, but to provide useful information needed to make those decisions.

The working group brings together many different players in the industry, who agree that co-existing in the same facilities is better for the future of all robotics companies and technology. Members and contributors to publication of the standards include: Vecna Robotics, 6 River Systems, Waypoint Robotics, Locus Robotics, Seegrid, MiR, Autoguide Mobile Robots, Third Wave Automation, A3, and Open Robotics.

Documentation for the standard can be viewed on the MassRobotics Github repository.

Soon, robots might be working together better than humans. I’m looking at you, Janet, and your “forgetting” to make the next pot of coffee.