In the dynamic world of automation, Anscer Robotics – an autonomous mobile robot solutions provider – is making significant strides, particularly with its expansion into the Americas.
So Robotics and Automation News decided to interview Mark Messina, managing director and CEO of Anscer Robotics Americas, to discuss the company’s vision, solutions, and strategic approach to transforming the manufacturing, logistics, and 3PL industries.
Messina, a veteran in the robotics space with a rich background from his time at Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), Geek+, and Addverb, shares his insights on leading Anscer’s charge into the US market.
In this exclusive Q&A, Messina delves into the immediate priorities for establishing a strong presence, the unique advantages of their hybrid autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and the impactful role of their Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model.
He also sheds light on how their proprietary Fleet Management System (FMS) is enhancing efficiency and scalability, and offers a glimpse into his five-year vision for Anscer’s influence on the US market.
Q&A with Mark Messina, managing director and CEO, Anscer Robotics Americas
Robotics and Automation News: Could you elaborate on your immediate priorities for establishing Anscer’s presence in the US market, and how you plan to cater to the specific automation needs of industries like manufacturing, logistics, and 3PLs?
Mark Messina: Our priority focus as we expand into the USA and APAC is simple. Deliver value – “ROI”. Our solutions deliver safety, process improvement, and labor savings, and put simply, that is value from ROI.
When we design products, this is our guiding light, so from the tangible perspective, for example the hardware, our robots are very robust, steel frames and bodies, simple to service with predictive maintenance. We design thinking of a 10-year “cost of ownership” model and over the life of the robot, we really excel in delivering value.
From the intangibles, for example software, we deliver ease of integration, deployment, and real UI utility. For manufacturing, logistics, and 3PLs, these are our foundational elements, and we have systems that address each of these markets very directly. Anscer took this into consideration with respect to our product design.
Historically, robots with this level of functionality and reliability were not economically viable for the majority of companies, so we intentionally aimed at making highly capable and flexible automation available for a much larger proportion of manufacturing and logistics operations.
R&AN: Anscer Robotics highlights its “Hybrid Autonomous Mobile Robots”. Could you delve deeper into how this integration of AMR agility with AGV precision is transforming material handling and warehouse operations, and what unique advantages this offers over other solutions in the market?
MM: You rightly point out that AMRs are agile, while AGVs offer precision. We combine the two, so we have all the goodness of both at our disposal. We can navigate freely – which is required in environments that normally are changing, be that from human presence, and transient items like pallets, goods, tools, and so on.
The world cannot always be a grid, the world is messy. Our robots can navigate the messy real world safely. However, sometimes operations require precision, and this is where we opportunistically leverage the QR code as a precise position locator. The best part is that AMR is infrastructure-free, while AGV requires only a sticker at a location.
So operationally, our hybrid (“sensor fusion”, if you like to be technical) adds virtually no cost, just the cost of the QR stickers. And we know that the real world changes, business process changes, and so on, and so with our hybrid bots, our clients can roll those changes easily, without downtime cost or disruption to their production.
R&AN: The Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model is a key part of Anscer’s strategy. How do you see this subscription-based approach lowering adoption barriers for advanced automation, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses, and what has been the market reception to this model so far?
MM: RaaS has been gaining attention because it shifts capex to opex, giving more freedom to adopt technology, since we aren’t hitting the capex process. Our model is unique, as we can structure our RaaS in ways that are very attractive.
For example, we can set up RaaS so that billing is proportional to the utilization of the system. In plain English what that means is that if production is low, the robot utilization is low, and your RaaS bill is low. Everything is in balance and proportion. Our partners are all over this low-exposure option.
R&AN: Your proprietary Fleet Management System (FMS) is designed to coordinate diverse robotic fleets. Could you explain how this system enhances efficiency, adaptability, and scalability in dynamic warehouse environments, especially as companies look to deploy a varied mix of robotic solutions?
MM: The FMS is the heart of a mobile robot system. Whether 1 or 1000, our FMS ensures the robots are operating logically and at efficient utilization levels. Anscer FMS ensures that you don’t buy too many robots (underutilization) or have too few (over utilized) required to run your operations with the full benefit of the fleet.
From our applications engineering and our FMS we are right sizing the fleet, and with the FMS you get a very intuitive and powerful tool for managing your bots, as well as a rich data dashboard. With this data and power, you, who know your process the best, are empowered to adjust and even further enhance productivity.
R&AN: What is your vision for the company’s impact on the US market in the next five years, particularly regarding new product developments and addressing evolving customer demands in warehouse automation?
MM: I have a clear vision for the US Market, and for Anscer Globally. I am expanding our product offerings, with a focus on low-cost and high-value. I want Anscer automation to be accessible to even small operators.
The market is a broad spectrum, and typically some part of the market sees automation as “out of reach” due to cost or complexity – so they make do and never change. The market, and those players, face pressure. Those who don’t automate won’t survive.
Anscer is bringing quality automation to the broad spectrum of the market. I’ve been in this space since the market was essentially created by Kiva. I see the trajectory of the technology and the ecosystem of commodity components that are in robots, and so on. Iit’s very clear, our new products will align with our goal of being lowest-cost and high value.
