Sick, a provider of sensor intelligence, and InOrbit.AI, a cloud-based RobOps platform, are collaborating to enhance operational safety and efficiency. The integration of Sick’s Tag-Loc System with InOrbit’s platform is designed to extend customers’ ability to manage a wide range of mobile equipment. In addition to InOrbit’s existing support for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and automated guided vehicles (AGVs), it is now possible to track and orchestrate the movement of manually operated vehicles and equipment like forklifts, pallet jacks and carts, allowing consistent management of all assets.
The Sick Tag-Loc system consists of fixed antennas and low-cost ultra-wideband tags that can be attached to equipment, inventory or even workers’ safety gear. The seamless integration with InOrbit enables support for hybrid fleets combining autonomous, guided and manual vehicles within a single platform. This unlocks congruent real-time analytics across vehicles, as well as the execution of complex workflows in accordance with traffic rules. For instance, a traffic management rule can be set up to give priority at an intersection to a person pushing a cart or driving a forklift, so that any mobile robots will let the person through first.
“For the first time, customers in industries such as 3PL and manufacturing can have robots, people, manually operated vehicles and fixed infrastructure like security cameras, automatic doors, chargers and other IoT devices working together in harmony through InOrbit’s RobOps platform. This is an important step forward in enabling software-defined operations,” Florian Pestoni, CEO and founder of InOrbit said.
“Sick and InOrbit share the goal of making it easy for humans and technology to work together,” David Adams, director of strategy and business exploration at Sick, stated. “We are excited that our Tag-Loc System helps further this goal for our shared customers.”
