On January 6, Mobile Industrial Robots announced the deployment of an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) at the IKEA Jarosty center, operated by FM logistic, a French logistics services specialist. With the MiR500, a heavy object and pallet transporter, this warehouse is equipped with technology that can be freely configured and used in daily operations, allowing employees to focus on more complex and higher value-added tasks.

AMRs, a cost-effective alternative to AGVs

AGVs are Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) that follow a path set by a wire guidance system. A wire integrated into the floor of the warehouse emits a magnetic field that is picked up by the machine and allows it to follow a defined path without any obstacles.

Thanks to AI and its lasers, the ARM can navigate in an environment with operators and material handling equipment, transport, it bypasses and avoids obstacles, a great advantage over AVGs which can detect obstacles in front of them, but are not able to bypass them and stop until the obstacle is removed. Unlike AGVs, which necessarily require a modification of the existing infrastructure via expensive installations (installation of sensors, wires or magnetic strips…), the installation of autonomous mobile robots is carried out in an extremely short time, it is not necessary to modify the existing infrastructure. because they rely largely on onboard sensors and cameras to operate. AMRs also have an intuitive interface that makes them easy to set up and use, and can be switched to perform new tasks with relative ease, thus increasing availability. In addition, they are operational 24 hours a day, another benefit to the company.

In the IKEA warehouse in Jarosty, the MiR500 robot is tasked with transporting pallets and loads of up to 500 kg. The main objective is to relieve employees of repetitive and unproductive activities, improve work safety and optimize warehouse costs.
Alexander Damie, Head of Innovation and Methods Process at FM Logistic Central Europe (CE), explains:

“In order to create a competitive advantage for the company and our customers, we invest in innovative solutions that are flexible, easy to use and therefore cost-effective. Mobile Industrial Robots technology is much more cost-effective than AGV systems. In this particular case, MiR’s solution is more than half the cost.”

Optimized travel and safe employees

After a training phase for the warehouse employees and the people supervising the mobile robot, the MiR500 is now operating fully autonomously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Edyta Smiechowicz, Jarosty Site Manager of FM Logistic CE, states:

“These implementation tasks for our customer require the transportation of large quantities of empty wooden pallet columns due to their use for storage in automated warehouses. This is an ideal process for automation. The current implementation in retail includes the integration of an autonomous robot that transports the empty pallets in the internal goods flow. In the tests, the robot traveled more than 60 km, successfully completed 180 missions and transported more than 1,500 empty pallets. Thanks to this, it was possible to optimize the trips while maintaining full employee safety and ensuring the profitability of this investment.”

Sebastian Kaczmarski, Central Fulfilment Operations Manager at IKEA Poland, highlights:

“The deployment of the MiR robot in the Jarosty distribution center is another step in optimizing our processes through the implementation of innovative solutions for our logistics operations.This is a perfect example of how well we are using the synergies between our two companies and what we can bring to each other.This allows us to continuously improve and adapt warehouse processes to the new reality – a hybrid between manual and automated processes.”

This is the second implementation of this type of robot at FM Logistic, carried out with ASTOR and ABZ Automatyka, integrators of robotic solutions in Poland. Last year, a slightly smaller model – the MiR200 – started working at the Mszczonów logistics platform, where it supports co-packing operations. It transports production waste, such as sheets and cartons, to the sorting center, traveling about 18.5 km daily. This distance previously had to be covered by employees. FM Logistic is considering further implementations of autonomous mobile robots at other sites in the future.

Translated from Le centre IKEA de Jarosty se dote d’un AMR : le MiR500 déployé par FM Logistics