Swiss robotic navigation company BlueBotics has released a new version of its ANT server fleet management software, which can now control not only the 100+ ANT driven customer vehicles on the market, but also VDA 5050-compliant AGVs and AMRs.
BlueBotics – whose ANT navigation technology drives over 5,000 AGVs and AMRs around the world – says its new initiative expandS the scope of its ANT server mission and fleet management software by adding compatibility with the German AGV interoperability standard VDA 5050.
As a result, ANT server can now manage not only the 100+ ‘ANT driven’ customer AGVs and AMRs currently on the market, but also VDA 5050-compliant AGVs and AMRs from non-ANT driven brands.
Dr Nicola Tomatis, BlueBotics’ CEO, says: “With this evolution, the widest choice of interoperable AGVs and AMRs on the market just got even wider.”
This product update further enhances the options of organizations that are looking to deploy or expand fleets of mobile robots.
By migrating to ANT server, organizations that already operate fleets of VDA 5050-compliant vehicles can now choose from an even wider choice of automated vehicles when growing their fleets.
Organizations that already operate fleets of ANT driven vehicles gain the option of adding VDA 5050 vehicles in future.
The interoperability of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) is expected to play a crucial role in the long-term adoption of these technologies.
BlueBotics and its vehicle maker partners are ideally positioned to facilitate this growth, since over 100 ‘ANT driven’ models are already natively interoperable today when managed by ANT server.
Several vehicle interoperability standards are under development today. The German VDA 5050 AGV communication interface is currently the most advanced, ahead of equivalents such as MASS in the US and another in China.
Tomatis says: “We are happy to bring this compatibility to ANT server.
“Even if the functionality that VDA 5050 offers today remains below that of ANT server and its ecosystem of natively interoperable ‘ANT driven’ vehicles, this evolution represents a valuable and necessary step in the direction of industry-wide multi-brand AGV operations.”
BlueBotics says its Autonomous Navigation Technology (ANT) is “the market’s leading natural navigation technology for automated vehicles”. To date, there are over 5,000 ‘ANT driven’ AGVs in operation globally, with over 130 different models already on the market and more being launched every month.
