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AGVs in the News AGVs Gain in Flexibility and Applications Compounding value by integrating voice and AMR Inside the GECOM Plant: A new take on AGVs GECOM Corp’s next-generation automatic guided vehicles (AGV) Seegrid closes $52 million in growth equity financing More AGVs News All Resources Learn what processes are best suited for voice and AMR solutions and how your business can see improvements in productivity, speed, operating capacity and service levels. There used to be clearly definable differences between the decades-old category of automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and the newer wave of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), which have gained attention by automating much of the legwork involved in e-commerce order picking. AGVs are considered proven and reliable for what they’ve done since the 1950s—moving larger loads within industrial facilities—but haven’t been thought of being dynamic in terms of either route navigation or changing workflows. AGVs may have their place—or so the perception goes—but they represent an older way of moving materials that isn’t flexible enough. But, it just may be time to throw out this perception of AGVs. Many AGVs still use some type of guidance infrastructure like reflectors to help navigate, but others use a more autonomous “natural navigation” approach. And while the AGV sweet spot remains moving unit-sized loads, some AGVs can now assist in goods-to-person order picking, while conversely, some AMRs can move and lift pallet-sized loads. Both categories are growing. According to analyst firm Interact Analysis, the AGV market will grow by 11% in 2020, even with Covid-19 disruption factored in, although the AMR market will grow by 45% this year. The analyst firm groups the two markets together under a “mobile robotics” assessment. AGVs are in a good place, say vendors, even if AMRs are dominating the high growth niche of e-commerce order […]