How many hours go into moving loads around?
More than any dashboard shows.
Moving a load neither transforms nor prepares anything: it only changes where it is, and a person does it and then walks back empty.
What it is
An AGV (automated guided vehicle) follows a fixed path: a magnetic strip, a rail or laser reflectors. It is predictable and the cheapest per unit, but changing the route means works.
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An AMR (autonomous mobile robot) builds its own map, avoids obstacles and recalculates the route; it costs more, and the route is changed in software.
In practice
Carrying loads between distant points of the warehouse is the task that adds the least value and takes the most hours. Autonomous vehicles make that trip on their own.
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There are two families, one that follows a fixed path and one that navigates by itself, and which one fits depends on how much your operation changes.
What an AGV is, and what an AMR is
AGV: the path is marked once
The automated guided vehicle runs on a physical reference installed in the building. It can be a magnetic tape stuck to the floor, an embedded wire, a rail, or a rotating laser that takes its position against reflectors mounted on columns and walls.
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The vehicle follows that reference and always runs the same route, with the same stops. The rigidity is the virtue: behaviour is predictable, commissioning is straightforward to audit, and cost per unit is lower than that of an autonomous vehicle. Where the route was settled years ago and never touched, from the end of the production line to the despatch area, from the dock to the goods-in floor, it does that job every day without surprises. The limit appears when the route changes: moving the path means lifting the tape or relocating reflectors and recalibrating. That is building work, with the warehouse disrupted, not a software setting.
AMR: the route is changed in software
The autonomous mobile robot needs no mark on the floor. It travels the warehouse once, builds a map with its sensors and then locates itself in that map by comparing what it sees against what it has stored.
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With that it goes from one point to another by whichever route suits, stops if a person appears, drives around a badly placed pallet and carries on. When the layout changes, the map is updated and that is that: the new path is a setting, not a building job. Cost per unit is higher than for a fixed-path vehicle, and that difference pays for itself in warehouses where the layout moves, where building work is under way, or where the vehicle has to share an aisle with people and forklifts. It also suits a project that starts small and will grow, because adding units does not force you to redo the floor infrastructure. In exchange it demands more of the environment: lighting, stable references and a floor kept in good condition.
What the warehouse itself has to provide
An autonomous vehicle is not plug and play. First, the floor: joints, level changes, damage and ramps condition speed and even the viability of the project, so flatness and permissible load are verified on site during the survey.
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Second, signage and order: clear traffic zones, marked crossings, defined pick-up and drop-off points, and a firm rule about where goods may be set down and where they may not, because a pallet left in the wrong place is, to the vehicle, a wall. Third, connectivity: the wireless network has to cover the whole route with no blind spots. And fourth, the software. One vehicle needs only simple task logic; several vehicles mean somebody has to decide who goes first at a crossing, who charges and when, and how orders are shared out. That is a traffic manager, integrated with your warehouse management system (WMS).
When each one suits
The useful question is not which is better, but how much your warehouse moves. If routes are stable and repetitive, if the stops are always the same and the layout has not changed in years, the fixed-path vehicle does that job with less investment per unit and fewer things that can go wrong.
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If the layout is rearranged by season, if building work is under way, if aisles are shared with people and forklifts, or if the project will grow in stages, the autonomous mobile robot is the answer, because every change is settled in software. There is a third scenario, and it is common: both together. The trunk route, long and always the same, on fixed-path vehicles; the variable legs on autonomous ones. The decision comes out of mapping a month of real movements: origin, destination, frequency, time of day and load unit. That map is drawn during the survey, and it is what then organises the investment.
What is an AGV, and what is an AMR?
An AGV (automated guided vehicle) is a driverless vehicle that moves loads along a fixed path, marked by magnetic tape, floor codes or laser reflectors: predictable, and suited to routes that do not change.
An AMR (autonomous mobile robot) builds its own map, avoids obstacles and recalculates its route in software: more flexible, and suited to changing routes or space shared with people. Neither stores in height; the autonomous forklift is the member of the family that also lifts the pallet onto the rack.
Autonomous forklifts on your existing racking
Autonomous forklifts: the AGV that lifts the pallet
Within automated guided vehicles there is one family worth naming separately, because it is the one people search for most: the autonomous forklift, also called a forklift AGV.
It is a lifting vehicle with forks that picks up the pallet, carries it and sets it down on the floor, on a conveyor or on a racking level, with no driver on board. It fits when moving pallets between fixed points —receiving, storage, production line and dispatch— keeps equipment and operators busy all shift, and when those routes repeat day after day. Before choosing it, the same things are checked as for any autonomous vehicle: floor condition, aisle width, how it shares space with people and driven equipment, and how it receives orders from the management software.
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The height at which it can place the load and the weight it lifts are set by the equipment chosen, and both are confirmed during the site survey.
What decides whether an autonomous vehicle suits, and which one?
We do not publish model-by-model specification tables: the detailed sheet comes with the assessment, sized against your operation. These are the criteria the choice is made on.
Distance and repetitiveness of the route
A vehicle is justified when the journey is long and repeats many times per shift. Short legs, which the operative covers on the way while completing another task, almost never return the investment.
Stability of the layout
If the route has not changed in years, a fixed path is enough and costs less per unit. If the warehouse is rearranged by season, by building work or by growth, choose a vehicle whose route changes in software.
Volume of movements per shift
This settles how many units are needed and whether the project adds up. Count real movements, not the average somebody recalls in a meeting: origin, destination, time of day and frequency of every single journey.
Sharing space with people and forklifts
A shared aisle calls for a vehicle that brakes, avoids and carries on. If traffic is dense throughout the shift, review the layout before the vehicle, because no technology fixes a circulation bottleneck.
Floor, network and coordination software
Joints, level changes and ramps condition speed; the wireless network has to cover the whole route; and more than one vehicle calls for a traffic manager integrated with your management system. All of it is verified during the survey.
When is an autonomous vehicle the wrong answer?
With short distances there is no case: if the trip is one the operator makes in passing, the vehicle only adds a wait.
Nor with few moves per shift, because the equipment sits idle. And in aisles with very dense traffic of people and forklifts, the vehicle brakes more than it moves: that is solved with layout, not robots.
Frequently asked questions
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Tell us about your case01What is an AGV?
An automated guided vehicle: a driverless vehicle that carries loads along a fixed path marked on the floor, with magnetic tape, codes or laser reflectors. It is predictable and suits routes that do not change.
02What is an AMR?
An autonomous mobile robot: a driverless vehicle that maps the warehouse, avoids obstacles and reroutes in software. It suits operations where routes change or the floor is shared with people.
03What is the real difference between an AGV and an AMR?
The automated guided vehicle (AGV) follows a fixed path marked on the floor or in the building: it costs less per unit and is highly predictable, but changing the route is building work. The autonomous mobile robot (AMR) navigates on its own, avoids obstacles and recalculates the route; it costs more per unit and the route is changed in software.
04Can they run in an aisle shared with people and forklifts?
Yes, and that is precisely the scenario where an autonomous vehicle suits better than a fixed-path one, because it brakes, avoids and carries on. That said, if traffic is dense throughout the shift the vehicle spends more time braking than moving, and the real problem is one of layout and traffic timing.
05Does it work if my layout changes every month?
That is the case for the autonomous mobile robot. You update the map and the new path is live without touching the floor. With a fixed-path vehicle, by contrast, every change means lifting the magnetic tape or relocating the reflectors and recalibrating the system, with the warehouse disrupted while the work lasts.
06How long does the investment take to pay back?
As an indicative reference, in automation projects we work with a payback of 18 to 36 months, and the real figure depends on movements, shifts and the labour cost of each operation. Installation takes 3 to 4 months from the purchase order. The sums are settled with the survey, not before it.
Other systems
Map the movements beforebuying the vehicle
The survey counts a month of real journeys, measures the floor and the network, and settles whether a fixed-path vehicle, an autonomous one or a change of layout is what you need. With that we deliver the diagnosis and the quotation.