A quantitative claim about mobile robots has raised questions about the semantics for defining versions of automatic guided vehicles (AGVs).

In last week's newsletter, Bill Torrens, Cimcorp Oy sales and marketing manager for the Americas, said his firm's 70 Adam-brand intelligent AGV (i-AGV) placement "represents the largest installation base of industrialised mobile robots in the world" (Forkliftaction.com News #487). Torrens in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada was unavailable to elaborate or explain his definition, but another player commented.

"Bill Torrens' comments about having the most installs are so wrong," says Scott Friedman, chief executive officer of robotic forklift maker Seegrid Corp in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Friedman acknowledges that no independent source can prove or disprove Torrens' statement.

"The closest thing to it is the (Industrial Truck Association) for lift trucks, and I've heard some discussion that they may start reporting the 'robotic industrial truck' segment," Friedman notes. "As far as I know, Seegrid is the only company at the moment that fits that working definition: unmanned/robotic versions of current lift truck models that are sold, serviced and supported through the lift truck channel."

Room exists within the product niche for more than one category definition.

Friedman believes Cimcorp subsidiary RMT Robotics Ltd as the Adam i-AGV producer and another firm, Kiva Systems of Woburn, Massachusetts, "fit into the AGV world" with "proprietary equipment designs that do not map to the standard equipment platforms (class 1, 2, 3, etc) and require proprietary/vertical sales, parts, service and support channels".

Friedman speculates that the term "mobile robots. . . will go away because it is now describing too many different products with no rational classification scheme". Several vendors including Seegrid have made "mobile robots" into a popular term.

Two market segments are envisioned by Friedman:

* AGVs for non-standard hardware requiring proprietary parts, sales, service and maintenance. "There are newer players like i-AGV (Cimcorp-RMT Robotics) and older players" such as Egemin International NV of Zwijndrecht, Belgium.
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* Robotic lift/industrial trucks for standard equipment types "that are sold, supported, serviced and maintained through the mature, reliable industrial truck channel."
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If looking at the Cimcorp-RMT Robotics as an AGV provider, "I know Kollmorgen powers around 1,200 units per year, and JBT and Egemin are much bigger than i-AGV," he notes. "Kiva Systems has shipped 1,000 robots so far. That number is available all over the web." Kollmorgen in Radford, Virginia is a unit of Danaher Corp's motion group. JBT's AeroTech segment makes AGVs and is part of the JBT Corp of Chicago, Illinois.

Other US operations in the field include Jervis B Webb Co of Farmington Hills, Michigan; Frog AGV Systems of Auburn Hills, Michigan; Intelligrated Inc of Mason, Ohio; and HK Systems Inc of New Berlin, Wisconsin, a unit of Dematic Holding Sàrl effective 15 September.

The Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) of Charlotte, North Carolina, has established an Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems industry group (Forkliftaction.com News #477).

MHIA and the Automation Technologies Council will co-locate their next respective ProMat and Automate exhibitions on 21-24 March 2011 in Chicago, Illinois (Forkliftaction.com News #460), and MHIA plans its own supply-chain-oriented MODEX trade show on 6-9 February 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia (Forkliftaction.com News #475).