AGV vs AMR: moving material without forklifts
Moving material between stations eats labour and creates safety risk. Automated vehicles solve this, and they come in two families: AGVs (automated guided vehicles) and AMRs (autonomous mobile robots).
AGV — follows a fixed path
An AGV navigates along a defined route — historically a magnetic tape or wire, more recently a virtual path. It is reliable and simple for repetitive point-to-point transport, but changing the route means changing the infrastructure.
AMR — navigates freely
An AMR builds a map of the facility and plans its own path, steering around obstacles and people in real time. Routes are changed in software, which makes AMRs a better fit for dynamic layouts and frequent change.
Safety and interoperability
Both types operate around people, so safety is governed by ISO 3691-4 (driverless industrial trucks and their systems). Just as important for fleets is interoperability: the VDA 5050 interface standard lets vehicles from different makers talk to one master control, so you are not locked into a single vendor.
Choosing between them
- Stable, high-volume routes → an AGV is cost-effective and dependable.
- Flexible layout, mixed traffic → an AMR adapts without re-wiring the floor.
- Integration → both should talk to your MES/WMS so transport is triggered by real demand, not a fixed timer.
The right choice depends on how often your flows change — and how much you value being able to reconfigure later.