AWS re:Invent 2021 - {New Launch} Improve efficiency of robotics automation with AWS IoT RoboRunner

Aug 16, 2023

AWS re:Invent 2021 - {New Launch} Improve efficiency of robotics automation with AWS IoT RoboRunner

Realizing the full value of robotics automation requires optimization at a system level, but enterprises face challenges to building robotic management applications that work across a diverse fleet of robots and industrial automation. In this session, learn how AWS IoT RoboRunner makes it easier to build applications that make it possible to interoperate and orchestrate robots from a single view by removing complex development work required to connect robots to each other and the rest of your industrial automation. AGCO shares how AWS IoT RoboRunner is helping them scale their robotics fleet efficiently, optimize equipment usage, and improve on-time delivery.

Learn more about re:Invent 2021 at https://bit.ly/3IvOLtK

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Content

1.5 -> All right. Hi, everyone.

3.04 -> Welcome.

5.22 -> Thanks for joining us today.

7.11 -> My name is Ibi Horvath.

8.48 -> I'm the principal product manager for AWS Robotics.

11.99 -> And today, I have with me Daniel Zapf, VP and CIO of AGCO,

16.44 -> who will be joining me later in the presentation.

18.95 -> I'm excited to be here to talk to you today about

21.36 -> how to improve the efficiency of your robotics automation

24.83 -> with a new service that we announced this week,

27.22 -> AWS IoT RoboRunner.

32.42 -> Our agenda today covers a lot of great discussion

35.36 -> about robotics and technology,

37.56 -> but my goal for this session is to hopefully give you

40.11 -> bit of a different perspective on the subject.

43.08 -> My experiences early on in my career

45.3 -> as a warehouse associate

46.9 -> and eventually a product manager at Amazon Robotics,

50.16 -> where we deployed automation technology

52.31 -> into fulfillment centers and transportation centers,

55.07 -> taught me that the problems that we're trying to solve

57.96 -> are not just all technology problems.

60.6 -> They're real-world operator problems.

63.44 -> Things like, how can I ensure

65.46 -> to maximize the uptime of my operations?

68.54 -> How can I reduce the cost of running my operations?

71.61 -> And yes, we are using technology to solve those problems,

75.83 -> but at the end of the day, with AWS IoT RoboRunner,

79.95 -> we're striving to provide the tools

81.87 -> to improve the operator experience.

87.6 -> Before we get into the new service and what it is,

90.76 -> I wanted to share some insights with you

92.87 -> about what we've learned from our customers,

95.22 -> including Amazon,

96.8 -> and what some of the business drivers are

98.55 -> for robotics automation.

100.99 -> Over the past three years,

102.47 -> the AWS Robotics team has had the chance

105.51 -> to talk to hundreds of customers

107.55 -> about how they're using robots

109.68 -> and what they see for the future.

111.76 -> And they've taught us a few things.

113.26 -> We've seen a few trends.

116.38 -> Scale.

117.78 -> Enterprises are growing rapidly, expanding globally.

121.89 -> You're gonna hear a little bit more about this

123.6 -> during Daniel's part of the presentation.

127.07 -> With that customer demand, there's always a desire

130.09 -> to also continue improving customer experience.

133.59 -> A good example of that is Amazon,

135.67 -> and the continued push through the years,

137.84 -> two-day shipping, one-day shipping, sub-same-day shipping,

141.22 -> all to improve the experience for our customers.

145.32 -> But this rapid scale creates complexity.

148.75 -> As companies add more and more automation

151.23 -> to their operations, it can be difficult to optimize.

156.12 -> It can be difficult to find ways

157.71 -> to standardize processes across your network.

160.75 -> It's not just about optimizing one facility, one plant.

164.91 -> How can you optimize your entire network?

167.97 -> And, of course, cost improvement.

170.46 -> One of the biggest drivers

171.73 -> for robotics automation is cost-improvement.

175.09 -> Customers are looking for ways to improve efficiency

178.26 -> and reduce the cost of running their robotic operations.

184.45 -> There's a long-term trend towards robotics automation.

188.55 -> Enterprises are looking for robotic automation

191.34 -> to do the dull, the dirty, and the dangerous jobs

195.42 -> so people don't have to.

198.01 -> While adoption of robotics is happening

199.99 -> across all industries,

201.67 -> this is also something we are doing ourselves,

204.03 -> particularly with our own Amazon fulfillment centers.

207.77 -> Amazon is leading the charge in robotics.

210.64 -> When I first started my career as an Amazonian,

213.82 -> we were focused on our first robotic fulfillment center

217.24 -> with only hundreds of robotic drive units.

220.11 -> Today, we have over 350,000 robotic drive units in operation

226.17 -> and countless other innovations in production.

231.53 -> As this trend towards robotics continues to grow,

235.56 -> realizing the full value of your automation

238.16 -> requires optimization at a system level.

241.61 -> This is particularly true in industrial environments,

244.49 -> where coordinating multiple robots

246.36 -> to work seamlessly together

248.22 -> is critical to operational success.

251.17 -> What I've learned from the countless operators

253.16 -> that I've talked to

254.37 -> is, today, they're lacking the tools to enable them

257.36 -> to manage their operation through a single pane of glass.

260.91 -> I've been in many operational environments,

263.08 -> whether it's an operations manager

264.99 -> has 15 windows open to understand

267.23 -> what the productivity looks like on their production line,

270.16 -> or the maintenance technician,

271.86 -> who has countless windows open

274.18 -> to just see where their robot problems are,

276.28 -> where to go, and how to fix them.

281 -> And why is the single system view

282.96 -> in optimization so challenging?

285.76 -> Because it's challenging

286.84 -> to connect different types of robots.

289.41 -> Each robot vendor has its own control software

292.18 -> and data formats, their own mapping,

294.72 -> their own visualization tools.

296.74 -> And operators have to manage all of their robots in silos,

300.18 -> making it challenging for them

301.59 -> to effectively do their day-to-day jobs.

304.86 -> Deploying robotics in general,

306.98 -> connecting to your many enterprise work management systems,

310.89 -> and building the necessary applications for operators

314.16 -> requires complex and time-consuming integration work.

321.25 -> I've experienced these challenges firsthand

323.58 -> building products for our Amazon fulfillment

325.53 -> and transportation networks,

327.38 -> but I'm excited that here at AWS,

329.78 -> we get to bring years of innovation and problem solving

332.52 -> to our customers around the globe.

337.38 -> This week, we launched AWS IoT RoboRunner,

341.22 -> a cloud service based on the same technology

343.87 -> used in Amazon's fulfillment centers,

346.26 -> and we're making it available for our AWS customers

349.39 -> so they can build the advanced robotic applications needed

352.7 -> to support their operations.

355.1 -> RoboRunner enables you to connect different types of robots

358.06 -> to management systems via a common infrastructure.

361.67 -> This makes it possible to optimize your operations

364.91 -> through a single system view

366.33 -> and maximize the value of your robotics.

369.62 -> RoboRunner provides tools for developers

372.19 -> to build the necessary applications for operators

375.27 -> so the operators can focus on the critical value-added tasks

379.08 -> in their industrial environment.

381.84 -> We wanna make it easier for developers

384.07 -> to build robotics management applications

386.95 -> by removing the undifferentiated development work required

390.64 -> to connect robots of different types and different systems.

397.72 -> So we're gonna talk through a little bit about how it works

400.23 -> and a few reasons we think customers

402.32 -> are going to love AWS IoT RoboRunner.

406.55 -> RoboRunner makes it easier to build applications

409.47 -> that make it possible to interoperate

411.73 -> and orchestrate robots from a single view

414.97 -> by removing that complex development work required

417.95 -> to connect them to each other

419.5 -> and the rest of your industrial software systems.

423.478 -> AWS IoT RoboRunner collects and combines data

427.26 -> from all of your robot types in a fleet,

429.54 -> standardizes the data, like your facility data,

433.01 -> location data, and robotic task data,

435.82 -> in a centralized repository

437.78 -> to make it easier to build robotic management applications

441.17 -> for your fleets of robots.

444.13 -> Developers can use AWS IoT RoboRunner

447.61 -> to access the unified data required

449.78 -> to build these management applications

452.32 -> using pre-built software libraries

454.87 -> for building applications

456.1 -> for common orchestration use cases,

458.67 -> such as shared space management, work allocation,

462.06 -> even front end-user applications, like mapping,

465.45 -> robot location tracking, health visualization, metrics.

470.96 -> With AWS IoT RoboRunner,

473.58 -> you can benefit from operations that are more safe,

476.91 -> more sustainable, and more convenient.

483.19 -> Our customers typically have to work with integrators

486.06 -> to introduce robots to their operational environments.

489.47 -> We're building on that to also make it easier

491.96 -> to implement AWS IoT RoboRunner

494.62 -> with your existing operations.

496.8 -> We've partnered with system integrators, such as Accenture,

500.63 -> Cognizant, Fresh Consulting and Slalom Consulting,

504.56 -> who can offer you onsite integration services and support.

508.66 -> Our partners can work with you

510.28 -> to build the interface between AWS IoT RoboRunner

514.32 -> and the backend enterprise systems used to assign tasks

517.77 -> and missions to your robots,

519.59 -> and even the front-end user-facing applications

522.02 -> that I was just referring to

523.64 -> for capabilities like your robot visualization

526.32 -> and your fault alerting.

528.67 -> Before I turn it over to Daniel,

530.22 -> I would like to share a video

531.44 -> that we have on AWS IoT RoboRunner.

538.29 -> (gentle music)

540.67 -> Enterprises rely on robots

542.4 -> to automate operations and warehouses, fulfillment centers,

545.82 -> and manufacturing facilities.

548.49 -> But in order to get the full value of robotics automation,

552.05 -> system-level optimization is required.

555.86 -> It's challenging to connect different robot systems

558.86 -> and deploying robots to operations

560.93 -> requires complex integration work

563.01 -> with enterprise management systems.

565.75 -> As a result, operations teams manage different types

568.73 -> of robots independently in silos.

572.963 -> AWS IoT RoboRunner makes it easier to build applications

577.29 -> that help robots work together seamlessly.

580.55 -> Using RoboRunner, you can connect different robot types

583.71 -> and enterprise work management systems

585.66 -> via a common infrastructure.

588.14 -> You can build applications for system-level optimization

591.27 -> using RoboRunner APIs and reference applications

594.42 -> for common robotics orchestration

596.41 -> and visualization use cases.

599.74 -> To get started, go to the AWS Management Console

603.38 -> to create and configure a facility

605.46 -> by providing a site name and location.

609.87 -> Behind the scenes,

611.6 -> RoboRunner creates centralized repositories

613.89 -> for storing robot facility, destination, and task data.

618.54 -> Next, you can download and use RoboRunner's

621.1 -> Fleet Manager Gateway Sample Application

623.57 -> to develop an integration code for connecting robots.

627.83 -> Additionally, you can download

629.46 -> and use RoboRunner's Task Manager

631.44 -> to connect to your enterprise management systems

634.05 -> and develop fleet orchestration logic

636.28 -> based on your specific use case.

639.02 -> After your robots and enterprise management systems

641.69 -> are integrated with RoboRunner,

643.37 -> you can use APIs to build user applications,

646.19 -> like location tracking, issue alerting,

648.68 -> and metrics visualization, through a single system view.

655.25 -> We can see here two different robots

657.3 -> working efficiently together.

659.98 -> In this demo, these robots are optimized

662.54 -> for shared space management.

665.07 -> This is just one of the use cases

666.85 -> we've heard from our customers.

669.53 -> You can also use RoboRunner for robotic collaboration

672.78 -> or customize for your orchestration use case.

677.44 -> Get started with AWS IoT RoboRunner and get the full value

682.04 -> of your robotics automation with system-level optimization.

697.29 -> Thank you, Ibi.

699.1 -> Thank you for your interest in this matter, in this topic.

703.13 -> I'm Daniel Zapf, the CIO of AGCO,

705.74 -> and very excited to be here.

708.175 -> AWS has been a partner,

709.8 -> a traditional cloud partner,

711.26 -> in transformation of the same for us since years.

713.98 -> And we are really in this partnership in a pivotal point,

717.06 -> where we are, for the first time,

718.52 -> really investing, co-investing into an industry product

722.44 -> with IoT RoboRunner.

726.48 -> Additionally, I think every large company today is invested

730.89 -> into white-collar robotics process automation.

735.14 -> Yet, for manufacturers like ours,

738.44 -> the challenges are different and more difficult

741.76 -> with the integration to the hardware

743.63 -> in the factories you need to accomplish.

747.63 -> But let's start with a super brief introduction

749.85 -> of who is AGCO.

751.63 -> We are a 9 billion company,

753.92 -> and we are one of the largest manufacturer

757.2 -> of smart agricultural products

759.32 -> across the entire crop lifecycle.

762.39 -> We are heavily investing

763.99 -> over 3 billion in the last 10 years in innovation and R&D.

769.6 -> We have over 21,000 skilled employees across the globe

773.31 -> and over 3,200 locations with our distribution network

777.36 -> across the globe.

781.64 -> Little bit of history.

782.71 -> AGCO, still a young company, founded 1990.

786.78 -> The first 15 years,

788.55 -> we're focused on a lot of acquisitions, over 40.

792.72 -> The next 15 years, then really focused

794.66 -> on internal transformation,

796.13 -> transforming to an operating company

798.5 -> but also launching large internal transformation programs

802.1 -> to really make it one company, like our SAP transformation.

805.65 -> And this year, fueled by our new Farmer-First Strategy,

810.65 -> accelerating growth and improving margin,

814.24 -> we are really focusing on our customers.

817.73 -> We have started large transformation initiatives

820.76 -> focusing on our farmers,

824.95 -> implementing digital products,

826.89 -> and this is now making a major step into our digitalization

833.08 -> of our operations platform,

835 -> meaning the core of our business,

836.48 -> how do we source, supply, and manufacture our products?

841.72 -> So our industrial cloud strategy.

844.55 -> You see at the bottom,

845.63 -> a traditional IT setup at a company

847.92 -> you would expect like ours,

849.37 -> so large SAP implementations

852.73 -> for ERP, PTC on the engineering side,

856.61 -> the MES layer that abstracts

858.23 -> from the very manufacturing plant-specific setup,

861.04 -> and on the OT level,

862.39 -> the connections to the various shop floor layers.

866.74 -> We are to that extent a typical automotive company

870.01 -> but also have much more complexity.

872.42 -> To give you one figure,

873.74 -> 80% of our products

875.16 -> that are leaving our factories this year

877.49 -> are a unique specification configuration.

881.83 -> So this is the traditional IT layers,

883.56 -> the three on the bottom, but they are slow.

886.33 -> This is not where innovation gets created

888.26 -> in a flexible, agile manner.

890.2 -> So we created these industrial cloud layers on top.

893.01 -> First, a data platform that provides all the data

896.55 -> that is generated there

898.11 -> and a so-called innovation layer or store

901.4 -> that is investing in all the nice things

903.52 -> you can do these days.

906.61 -> Digital shop floor management,

908.1 -> asset tracking, preventive maintenance,

910.46 -> corporate social responsibility application, OEE,

913.92 -> and many, many more to come.

916.03 -> But it's also not just focusing

917.7 -> on the four walls of a factory

920.29 -> but expanding to suppliers and to customers

924.04 -> provide this end-to-end flexibility

926.13 -> and agility companies like ours are requiring those days.

931.25 -> And our flagship initiative is AMM,

934.99 -> Autonomous Material Movement.

941.13 -> A video of what robots we have today already

946.81 -> and how they move material in an autonomous manner.

968.16 -> So those exist today.

969.71 -> This is the hardware,

971.36 -> but they are autonomous,

973.57 -> but are they also smart?

975.77 -> What about the software?

976.95 -> The hardware is there.

979.28 -> And this is where our Autonomous Material Movement vision

982.43 -> comes into play.

984.32 -> Imagine, in a factory,

985.49 -> we want to only focus on value-added work,

988.31 -> really enabling the workers to, at the line,

991.73 -> to at any point in time,

993.34 -> have the right material, left or right,

995.32 -> or wherever they require it, at the right quantity.

998.27 -> And this is the vision

999.44 -> of providing this in a fully-autonomous,

1002.64 -> flexible manner without faults.

1006.94 -> That, obviously, requires to manage fleets

1009.23 -> of very different suppliers.

1011.05 -> One of the big complexities today.

1014.45 -> And integration to the complete ecosystem.

1017.53 -> We have, respectively,

1018.77 -> I showed in the architectural slide before.

1022.13 -> But it's not just steering those robots,

1024.4 -> it's also adding intelligence,

1025.94 -> artificial intelligence to steer those.

1028.07 -> So whenever there is a requirement in the factory

1030.98 -> to move stock or material from A to B,

1034.09 -> and pulling all those thousand requirements

1036.42 -> we could have at the same point in time together,

1039.09 -> and finding the smart routes and keeping track

1042.36 -> of the robots to make sure they are not colliding

1045.63 -> or have any conflicts with route planning.

1050.86 -> We want a technology-agnostic platform.

1053.61 -> We want suitable accuracy.

1055.8 -> We want an integration with our asset tracking

1058.58 -> and, for sure, a mobile application,

1060.86 -> and that all built natively into the cloud

1063.95 -> with most modern technology.

1068.77 -> And this is what we call our AGCO AMM Fleet Manager.

1072.93 -> So Autonomous Material Movement

1075.57 -> allowing to realize the intelligent material-to-man,

1078.89 -> or more appropriately, material-to-human

1081.33 -> autonomous material transport vision at AGCO.

1090.16 -> And it's fully built upon the new AWS product,

1094.847 -> IoT RoboRunner, that Ibi just explained.

1098.82 -> So the vision is to establish

1100.66 -> not only this as a single silo product,

1103.33 -> but build on top of a fundamental investment

1106.93 -> into an IoT platform for the whole manufacturing,

1110.33 -> and this as a flagship product,

1112.72 -> allowing the use of predictive analytics

1114.9 -> for improving efficiency and visibility

1117.97 -> to equipment used for material handling.

1122.59 -> The solution, as mentioned, is the AWS IoT RoboRunner

1126.1 -> integrating two major robot providers, MiR and Omron,

1132.28 -> with our AGCO enterprise systems.

1135.76 -> The benefits, obviously, is a reduction in process time,

1138.83 -> optimized equipment usage,

1141.09 -> improved ergonomics, and improvements in on-time delivery.

1145.57 -> And obviously, robots can operate 24/7.

1152.09 -> Very simplified picture on the architecture.

1155.43 -> Obviously, on the upper right, the three red boxes you see

1158.53 -> the operational MRP and MES systems

1164.36 -> that are determining when which material needs

1166.88 -> to be at which location, at which quantity, and which time.

1171.62 -> These are handed over to the Fleet Manager

1174.02 -> on the very right side.

1175.6 -> And that Fleet Manager is then calculating

1178.55 -> what which robot is picking up.

1183.33 -> Going back to the Fleet Manager Gateway

1185.81 -> of the specific provider

1187.8 -> of the robot OEM.

1193.07 -> We have real-time updates that are sent back

1195.33 -> to understand where the robots are at every point in time

1197.93 -> to be able to resolve conflicts

1199.79 -> and have real-time visibility of the material movements.

1203.75 -> We also have, as shown on the bottom,

1205.88 -> an integration to our overall AGCO asset tracking gateway,

1210.37 -> through our asset tracking gateway

1212.15 -> to our asset tracking solution.

1218.61 -> That is fully in line with our broader vision

1220.51 -> of industrial cloud

1223.12 -> to not just automate the material movement,

1228.54 -> but have a more autonomous factory in totality in future

1232.85 -> and deploying that to all of our factories globally.

1238.13 -> We think about further use cases.

1239.91 -> So pick by beacon, not a static one at a specific location.

1243.8 -> That could be a human that is moving around,

1245.78 -> really picked to the specific location

1247.51 -> into the hand of that human.

1249.89 -> Integrating with outdoor AMRs or cleaning AMRs.

1255.89 -> Forklifts could be another vehicle that we automate.

1261.61 -> And even looking outside the four walls of the factories,

1264.58 -> so, for example, integrating with trucks.

1271.48 -> With that, I have two of my key contributing

1275.42 -> and leading colleagues with me.

1276.69 -> On the one hand, Jeetendra Kumar,

1279.14 -> my head of IT Strategy Innovation and Digital Value Streams,

1282.52 -> and I'm just reading out his quote.

1284.677 -> "We are very excited about our partnership with AWS

1287.697 -> "on building a digital product,

1289.367 -> "which will further drive automation and optimization

1292.467 -> "of material flow and AGV resources in our factories,

1296.067 -> "leading to our aspirations

1297.627 -> "to run our factories lights out."

1300.75 -> So a fully autonomous factory as a future, future vision

1304.04 -> that doesn't require any light.

1307.73 -> Equally, Hubertus Koehne, the Vice President

1310.46 -> of Smart Manufacturing and Innovation.

1312.637 -> "AGCO is fully dedicated to further automize

1314.987 -> "our material to man, to human strategy.

1319.087 -> "With B10, so the AMM,

1321.017 -> "we will further increase our shop floor productivity

1323.887 -> "and our ability to better cope with increased complexity.

1327.537 -> "Our partnership with AWS will accelerate

1330.277 -> "our path towards autonomous material flows.

1333.637 -> "We're excited to work closely in a team with AWS."

1339.66 -> I could not add more,

1341.13 -> and share the excitement,

1343.88 -> and Amazon tapping into industry products,

1348.08 -> and very much looking forward.

1351.05 -> With that, back to Ibi.

1353.97 -> Thank you, Daniel.

1354.803 -> We're also very excited for this partnership

1357.11 -> and how we're hoping to help your operation

1359.43 -> with AWS IoT RoboRunner.

1362.75 -> How to get started with RoboRunner.

1365.52 -> Who should contact us and be interested in RoboRunner?

1369.97 -> If you have an enterprise operation

1371.97 -> that uses industrial robots, mobile robots,

1375.14 -> and manufacturing or warehousing,

1377.49 -> if you have multiple brands of robots

1379.45 -> and you're interested in interoperability among them,

1382.53 -> even if you don't have many robots yet

1384.76 -> and you're interested in expanding your robots,

1387.86 -> or you have lots of robots

1389.45 -> and you just wanna better optimize your overall system,

1392.42 -> we're interested in helping solve those customer problems.

1395.61 -> If you're looking for efficient fleet management,

1398.41 -> a unified shop view,

1401.91 -> RoboRunner's the solution for you.

1404.17 -> We have a team here

1405.71 -> that's going to be in the industrial booth

1407.41 -> for anyone who's interested.

1409.02 -> Please come over. Talk to the team.

1411.51 -> On the console,

1412.61 -> you can also find documentation about the service

1415.33 -> that's available now.

1416.49 -> And there's opportunities to contact us

1419.01 -> through the AWS Console as well.

1421.31 -> We look forward to talking to customers

1423.27 -> and solving some problems.

1426.21 -> Thank you.

1427.774 -> (audience applauding)

1428.83 -> Thank you.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6zNGSm6gWM