OTTO Motors, a provider of autonomous mobile robots, has agreed a series of partnerships to extend availability of OTTO Motors’ line of AMRs to a global market.
In addition, OTTO Motors has successfully completed third party assessments to demonstrate that the company’s products meet or exceed all relevant safety standards in Europe and in the United States including ANSI/RIA R15.08 which they helped define.
The company will be demoing their software and AMR fleet at Automatica, which is being held virtually this year from June 22-24.
OTTO Motors provides autonomous material handling inside manufacturing facilities and warehouses and is the technology behind some of the largest deployments of AMRs in North America.
Instead of operators pushing carts or driving forklifts, OTTO’s line of AMRs autonomously delivers materials safely, reliably, and efficiently.
The combination of ease-of-use and sophisticated software means that OTTO AMRs can not only deliver value in short order, but also easily scale to hundreds of devices.
In order to make OTTO’s line of award-winning AMRs available worldwide, the company has partnered with leading system integrators around the world and expanded its global partnership program.
OTTO Motors is announcing partnerships with DesignPro Automation and Romias Robotics in Europe as well as our global integrator partner Grenzebach Group.
This is in addition to newly-operational warehousing operations in The Netherlands and Japan to better serve customers in those regions.
Rick Baker, chief revenue officer at OTTO Motors, says: “One of the things that sets OTTO Motors apart is our process-first approach to automating material handling.
“It is how we’re able to achieve facility-scale transformation for our customers and why we’ve been very intentional about our growth.
“We partner with the very best integrators and tech leaders to provide customers with industry expertise to automate a wide range of workflows in their facilities and regional presence to provide top tier support.
“Seventy percent of our customers are Global 500. We’re proud today to announce global coverage and safety compliance worldwide.”
OTTO welcomes European partners Romias Robotics and DesignPro Automation
Based in The Netherlands, Romias Robotics is a flexible organization that has already realized a large number of projects, with which we have grown into a reliable partner for medium to large companies.
Romias and OTTO partner to provide a variety of purpose-built solutions for their customers.
Martijn Jansen, CEO and founder of Romias Robotics, says: “The value of the human worker has never been more pronounced, nor as scarce. Our partnership with OTTO Motors will help to introduce strategic automation into our customers’ workflow so that workers can avoid tasks that are dirty, dangerous or dull.”
Based in County Limerick, Ireland, DesignPro Automation is a leading provider of precision automation, robotics, and machine build services.
The company predominantly focuses on advanced automation solutions for the medtech sector but have also delivered solutions to the pharmaceutical, automotive, aviation, cosmetics, and renewable energy sector.
Redmond McDonnell, CEO of DesignPro Automation, says: “We are extremely pleased to partner with OTTO Motors and to bring the safety and reliability of their AMRs to a European audience.
“As labor shortages continue to hamper so many industry sectors, it is our hope that our partnership with OTTO will help to keep productivity high with our customers.”
OTTO Motors forms new partner with Grenzebach Group
Headquartered in Hamlar, Germany, and with more than 20 offices around the world, Grenzebach is an acknowledged specialist in robotic handling technologies for the fulfillment logistics, glass processing, solar, building materials, and industrial process technology sectors.
OTTO says it is “excited” to work with Grenzebach to support their autonomous goods to person solution.
David Schwebel, executive vice president, Grenzebach Group, says: “The warehousing fulfillment and manufacturing industries are at a crossroads where supply can only meet demand through more efficient and effective automation.
“Our partnership with OTTO Motors is another large step forward in evolving our customers’ logistical arenas with strategic automations.”
New partners join OTTO’s existing partner network include:
- Bastian Solutions (Global)
- Altech (Japan)
- ADDE (Australia)
- CR Automation (New Zealand)
- Pulse Integration (North America)
Emerging robot safety standards
OTTO Motors helped develop the first standard addressing safety in the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) industry.
OTTO Motors, along with leading robot manufacturers; end users such as Amazon, Ford, GM, Honda, P&G, Nissan; and other government and non-government organizations such as NIST, UL, TUV and academia, worked to develop ANSI RIA 15.08-1.
Jeff Burnstein, president at the Association for Advancing Automation, says: “As the AMR market has grown, so too has the need for accompanying safety standards in the US and abroad.
“OTTO Motors’ participation on our standards committee and leadership on this issue has helped to raise the bar for worker safety.”
This standard addresses safety requirements for industrial mobile robots. The entire OTTO Motors fleet meets and exceeds these standards.
Baker says: “Our solutions are a force multiplier to the talented people already deployed in these facilities, so we take their safety and productivity to heart as we purposely build and deploy automated solutions.”
RIA 15.08 is the ANSI Standard most closely equivalent to ISO 3691-4 and CE Machinery Directive compliance in Europe.
OTTO Motors also recently received CE certification across its fleet.
OTTO AMRs and charging systems also adhere to other safety standards, including ANSI/RIA R15.08-1 (2020), ISO 13849-1 (2015), ISO 12100 (2010), ANSI B56.5 (2019), IEC 60204-1 (2018), and a number of others.
