HUPICO is launching wheel.me's autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in Benelux and France. The AMRs turn existing carts and racks into smart vehicles that find their way through environments independently.
Belgian-based HUPICO focuses on supporting customers with technology and support, focusing on industrial robotics and vision systems. The company provides solutions in areas such as robotics, intralogistics and food systems.
Among other things, the company is a partner of EPSON in both Belgium and the Netherlands. Its focus in this role includes integrating robots ranging from SCARA robots to six-axis robots.
Separate wheels that interact with each other
wheel.me is a Norwegian company focused on manufacturing AMRs. Unlike many other AMRs, wheel.me's robots consist of individual wheels, which interact with each other. This provides flexibility. For example, each wheel can want a load of up to 100kg. Increasing the number of wheels therefore allows the maximum load to be increased.
As standard, the AMR consists of four wheels. These are omnidirectional, which means they can move in all directions and rotate on their axis. In doing so, the AMRs move at a speed of 0.8 m/s The robots are aimed exclusively at use in indoor environments.
Find their way independently
The AMRs are able to find their way through an environment independently. In doing so, they automatically detect and avoid obstacles that come their way. Important in a dynamic environment like a warehouse, where other robots or people are also present. For this, the robots use vision technology combined with LiDAR sensors and cameras.
Companies can manage the AMRs via the wheel.me app. Here, they can view transport orders and tasks, amongst other things, and control the robots in real time. New robots can also be added to an existing fleet via the app. The app is available in both cloud-based and on-premises versions. Further technical specifications are available here.
Responding to increasing demand
By joining forces, HUPICO and wheel.me aim to respond to the increasing demand for smart solutions. In doing so, HUPICO aims to provide flexible and scalable solutions that help customers optimise logistics processes. wheel.me benefits from HUPICO's local presence and technical expertise, and expands its market through the partnership.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
