OMRON announces FLOW Core 4.0 and Virtual Fleet Manager for scalable AMR deployment

30 April, 2024

The updated FLOW Core 4.0 software introduces a virtualized version of OMRON’s industry-leading Fleet Manager solution for Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) fleet orchestration.

OMRON, an industry leader in industrial robotics, has announced the release of Fleet Operations Workspace (FLOW) Core 4.0 software, a next-generation platform for boosting the capabilities of their LD, MD, and HD series autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), while simplifying the integration process and improving fleet management. FLOW Core is a single software suite for coordinating intelligent job assignments and charging schedules, applying advanced navigation and traffic control, and delivering seamless integration with IT & OT systems like MES, ERP, and WMS.

This new release updates several key areas: 

OMRON's Fleet Manager, a software application used for managing fleets of AMRs, has been redesigned for deployment on hypervisor platforms. Hypervisor platforms are virtualization software that allow for the creation and management of virtual machines. This ensures a secure and flexible IT infrastructure. Fleet resources can be scaled for application needs with high availability and fault tolerance options for uninterrupted operation. 

The new FLOW Core 4.0 includes support for 3D LiDAR to all AMR models thanks to OMRON’s advanced sensing options. Software tools for customizable docking strategies have been added to tailor charging routines to the application. 

OMRON’s data analysis package, FLOW iQ, lets users visualize and monitor the wireless infrastructure layout as seen by the robot. The introduction of dynamic wireless network diagnostics enables IT & OT convergence accelerating AMR fleet deployment and wireless problem resolution, resulting in increased return on investment. 

MobilePlanner 8, OMRON’s application engineering user interface, boosts productivity for automation engineers with new 2D shape editor for no-code definition of CAPS target and robot shapes.