Warehouse robotics uses mobile or fixed equipment to move, lift, sort, or handle materials. Typical projects automate a defined task: transporting a pallet, bringing a tote to a workstation, palletizing cartons, or moving goods through storage and sortation. The right system depends on the load, layout, people, work sequence, and how the equipment connects to warehouse operations.
Start with the task
Mobile transport can move pallets, carts, or totes between receiving, storage, production, and picking areas. Describe the route, payload, handoff points, traffic, and what happens when an aisle is blocked. Automated guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots are examples of driverless industrial trucks named in the scope of ISO 3691-4:2023, but the equipment labels do not specify every design or application.
Fixed handling includes robotic arms and other equipment for picking, placing, sorting, or palletizing. Evaluate the item range, presentation, packaging variation, reach, grasping, changeover, guarding, and maintenance access. Storage, conveyor, and other automation may require a different operating plan; do not assume that safety or performance criteria for one machine apply to every system.
Check the warehouse environment
Map aisles, floor condition, slopes, thresholds, crossings, pedestrian paths, staging areas, charging, and maintenance access. Determine how workers and powered equipment share the space and how the team will respond to a stopped machine or unsafe condition. OSHA's warehousing guidance describes hazards involving powered industrial trucks, pedestrian traffic, materials handling, and work-area design. Automation does not remove the need for safe operating procedures and training.
Then follow a task from release to completion. Decide which system assigns work, how the robot confirms acceptance, what happens when the load is missing or the path is blocked, and how completed work updates inventory. Demonstrate lost communications, low power, an item mismatch, and a manual return to work. NIST's robotics measurement work emphasizes testing against intended requirements and environments, a useful model for designing a site-specific trial.
What to ask before a trial
- Which loads, routes, products, operating hours, and variations are included?
- What safety standard and equipment scope apply, and who handles site risk review and commissioning?
- How are task priorities, exceptions, human overrides, and manual fallback managed?
- What facility changes, interfaces, charging, maintenance, training, parts, and support are required?
- Which measures will be observed, under what conditions, and how are faults recorded?
ISO 3691-4:2023 specifies safety requirements and verification for driverless industrial trucks and their systems; check its scope against the equipment and current standards with qualified safety personnel. A trial can help determine whether a particular setup fits a particular task. It does not establish performance for every warehouse.
Questions buyers ask
Are AGVs and AMRs the same thing?
They are distinct product labels and designs. Ask how the proposed machine navigates, carries the load, interacts with people, and recovers from an obstruction.
Does a robot need a WMS connection?
The architecture varies, but define who releases work and how completion, faults, and inventory changes are communicated. Demonstrate the full transaction and fallback.
Does a safety standard certify my site?
No. A standard has a defined equipment scope. The facility still needs an appropriate review of the equipment, operating zone, procedures, and training.