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AGV & AMR

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ROBOTICS 2021
PALLET HANDLING + CUSTOM PAYLOADS | FACTORY & WAREHOUSE MOBILE ROBOTS | NOV 2021

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Author
Thomas Andersson
Co-founder & Principal Analyst
STIQ Ltd t/a Styleintelligence
Email | Linkedin | Website
M: +44 (0)7870 210529

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Version 1.0, Nov 30, 2021

EXEC SUMMARY: FRAGMENTED SECTOR WITH SIGNIFICANT GROWTH IN 2021 DESPITE
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTIONS. HIGH LEVEL OF M&A ACTIVITY. 2022 AND BEYOND?
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS BASICS
• There are three basic vehicle form factors in the AGV &
AMR Robotics sector: Mouse, Forklift and Tugger
• One of the key advantages of AGV & AMR Robots is
flexibility and vehicles are frequently customised to suit
sometimes very specific customer applications
• Customisation can range from a simple upgrade of
motors and sensors to building a completely new robot
• Payloads often vary greatly, from <50 Kgs to >50 tonnes
• A high product flexibility may have contributed to a
degree of fragmentation in the sector
BUSINESS MODELS & TECHNOLOGY
• Flexibility also expands to business models, navigation
technology and component selection
• Some vendors may offer a core product that is fully
developed internally and add-on products that use
outsourced software whilst others may simply sell
manual vehicles that are converted into autonomous
vehicles
• This level of flexibility means that it can often be difficult
for new customers to identify differences between
vendors and vehicles
• Open source technology, such as ROS, remained
unsuitable for commercial applications, but had received
significant backing by Nvidia
THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
• Customers approached the AGV & AMR sector
differently along a grey scale from novice to expert and
buying robots versus solutions
• Pilots and POCs remained a key sales tactic for the
majority of vendors
SIGNIFICANT GROWTH
• Interviews suggested that growth returned in 2021
having been stagnant at best in 2020, and many vendors
reported >50% growth
• Growth was achieved despite the many supply chain
challenges both for customers and for vendors
• However, demand varied significantly between industry
sectors and whilst F&B remained very busy throughout
lockdowns and in 2021, the automotive sector froze
projects during lockdowns and experienced significant
supply chain issues in 2021
RANDOM SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES
• Supply chain issues affected both vendors and customers
• Customers sometimes lacked components to build their
products which caused a delay to AGV & AMR projects
• Vendors were affected by component price increases,
longer delivery times (receiving components and
shipping robots to customers) and occasionally out of
stock components
• Furthermore, raw material price increases were known
to have affected some projects
• Delays occurred when some customers held off buying
racking for non-critical projects due to increased steel
prices, as AGV & AMRs are often scheduled at the end of
a warehouse project
LACK OF TALENT AFFECTING GROWTH?
• Vendors and customers indicated there is a lack of talent
in the sector and that this was affecting growth
• Whilst access to talent has been an issue for years,
explosive growth in e-commerce had caused warehouse
automation companies (incl. Amazon) to increase hiring
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• Customer interviews indicated that the lack of people
had affected how many robots they could deploy, and
also that some projects were on hold awaiting software
integration
GROWTH IN 2022 AND BEYOND
• Interviewees were split whether the very high growth
levels experienced in 2021 would continue in 2022
• Customer interviews suggested that the pandemic had
changed how automation was viewed internally; facility
managers had now experienced the worst case scenario
and the result was an increasing interest in potential
automation options
• A few interviewees speculated that some of the growth
in 2021 may have been a result of a few buyers
accelerating procurement plans and that this may affect
buying in 2022
• Overall, STIQs impression was that supply chain and
talent issues may have impacted total growth in 2021 by
up to 10%
SECTOR INVESTMENT AND M&A
• Publicly announced investments in AGV & AMR vendors
declined by c.60% in 2021 compared to 2020
• However, some vendors appeared to delay funding
announcements to maximise PR opportunities
• The AGV & AMR sector experienced three significant
acquisitions in 2021: ASTI + ABB, Fetch + Zebra and
Arculus + Jungheinrich
Have questions? Want to know what options there are for
you as a buyer of AGV & AMR technology? STIQ offers a
complimentary free 30min debrief for AGV & AMR buyers
email: tom@styleintelligence.com
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CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS
SEGMENTATION 4
TECHNOLOGY 5
BUSINESS MODELS 11
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
INTERVIEW WITH USER OF AGVs & AMRs 18
Free distribution of this report was enabled by: JOURNEY DETAILS 19
GROWTH
AGV & AMR MARKET 23
GROWTH BY INDUSTRY SECTOR 25
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION 27
AGV & AMR DEMOGRAPHICS
VENDOR GROWTH 31
ACCESS TO TALENT 35
FUNDING AND M&A
SECTOR FUNDING 39
NOTABLE M&A TRANSACTIONS 41
COMPANY PROFILES 44
CREDITS, INTERVIEWEES & SPONSOR 57
MARKET SIZE DATA Contact us

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THE AGV & AMR ROBOTICS SECTOR CONSISTS OF THREE BASIC FORM FACTORS WITH A
VERY WIDE RANGE OF DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS, CUSTOMISATIONS, ETC.
THREE BASIC AGV & AMR ROBOTICS FORM FACTORS THE MOBILE ROBOTS ECOSYSTEM THE MOBILE ROBOTS LANDSCAPE
• The AGV & AMR Robotics sector is located in between Payload/Cost* Volume
MOUSE (or turtle)
high volume consumer robots + G2P & P2G robotics and

Mining Industry Robots (utility vehicles)

• The mouse type vehicle drives under a CUSTOM AGV & AMR PAYLOADS “G2P”
payload and either raise its own platform autonomous utility vehicles, such as those used in the
to carry the payload or attach to pull (tug) mining industry
a payload from below • AGV & AMR Robotics technology also overlaps with
autonomous cars, with the difference that AGV & AMR

FORKLIFT (or forktruck)
• The forklift vehicle works as a manual
forklift, i.e. the forks are typically used to
lift a payload from a rack or floor location
TUGGER (or tow vehicle)
• The tugger pulls a trolley or a train of
trollies/carts
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis
THREE BASIC FORM FACTORS
• There are three basic form factors (Mouse, Forklift,
Tugger) in the AGV & AMR Robotics sector
• The basic form factor is often modified to fit a specific
application with a multitude of add-ons, configurations,
customisations, etc.
• For example, a robot that transports paper rolls would
use a forklift chassis but replace the forks with very large
tongs that grab paper rolls from the sides
• On the other hand, a robot that transport a crucible with
molten aluminium may be a converted manual vehicle
Consumer Robots
Robots never carry people
DIFFERENCES WITH OTHER ROBOTS
• One of the key differentiating features of AGV & AMR
Robots is that they frequently interface with other
automation infrastructure or intermediaries, such as
pallets
• AGV & AMR Robots (excl. Tuggers) are rarely loaded or Custom, Very Manufacturing, factory, E-Commerce,
unloaded manually High Payload Parcel Sortation
3PL, Warehouse
• For example, an AGV may be used to transport an
engine from a station through the refining and fitting
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis
process through to an offloading station * In broad terms for basic non-customised form factors
• Likewise, an AMR may go to an end of production line
conveyor and wait for a pallet to arrive, and then move G2P / P2G ROBOTICS
it to a storage system • Most G2P and P2G robots are [currently] deployed in
manual unit picking environments, such as e-Commerce
fulfilment warehouses, where the robots either move
between two people that load and unload a vehicle
(P2G) or move a shelf to a picking station for a person to
pick an item
• Note that the picking robotics sector is evolving fast and
robots are increasingly managing piece picking as well
• If you are interested in e-Commerce fulfilment robotics
or automation, download our G2P Solutions report from
our website for free www.styleintelligence.com
4
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THE AGV & AMR ROBOTICS SECTOR CAN BE SEGMENTED BY THE NAVIGATION
TECHNOLOGY USED IN VEHICLES
MOBILE ROBOTS IN MATERIAL HANDLING APPLICATIONS (SEGMENTED BY NAVIGATION TECHNOLOGY) “We see a big confusion in the market about the
differences between AGVs and AMRs and we have found
The LGV acronym is used less frequently many customers that use AGV name for all automatic
(than AGV & AMR) and refers to laser- vehicles. All of our vehicles are AMRs, we use SLAM and
based navigation using reflectors
natural features navigation.” [Omron]
“AMRs can be both complementary as well as
replacements for AGVs. It depends a little bit on which
processes we're talking about. AGVs will probably still be
around for some of the assembly line type jobs with takt
times.” [Geek+]
Covered in this report
SAMPLE APPLICATIONS
• AGVs are typically used to transport goods between
© STIQ Ltd, 2020 different staging areas in a manufacturing environment,
for example on a production line where you add the
Covered in G2P chassis and then the engine at the next step, etc. in a
Report continuous loop
• AMRs may also be used in AGV applications but have
G2P & P2G robots are typically additional flexibility as they do not have to follow set
deployed in e-Commerce routes and may avoid objects (discussed later in this
fulfilment applications and are
covered in STIQs G2P Solutions
report)
report available free here • The typical use for AMRs is load-unload scenarios, for
example from the end of a production line to a storage
location
• AMRs and AGVs are typically sold as a basic form factor
AGV & AMR FOCUS IN THIS REPORT • The different acronyms used typically refer to the type that can be fitted with a wide range of load carrying
of navigation that is used, but a lack of standards means implements, from pallet lifting (typically <30cm lift
• The focus for this report is automated and autonomous
that interpretation varies according to whom you may height) to conveyors, towing, etc.
robots primarily used in manufacturing and warehouse
be talking to • LGVs have mainly been used in ‘low navigation tolerance
environments for handling of larger payloads, bulky and
• In this report: applications’, i.e. pallet handling or very heavy payloads
palletized goods
• AGVs require a track/line to follow • Unique to the LGV segment, many vendors convert
• These robots are commonly referred to as AGV or AMR
• AMRs use SLAM navigation, also known as natural existing manual forklifts to autonomous vehicles
robots
feature navigation
• LGVs mainly use reflectors for laser navigation 5
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THE DIFFERENT NAVIGATION & LOCALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES AND ACRONYMS USED
OFTEN CREATE MISUNDERSTANDINGS
AGV & AMR ROBOT NAVIGATION TECHNOLOGIES SLAM INTRO*
• SLAM is a mapping & localization technology used by
NAVIGATION STRUCTURED UNSTRUCTURED LOCATION OBSTRUCTION VEHICLE robots that can be continuously updated as robots drive
TECHNOLOGY WORKFLOW WORKFLOW TECH ACCURACY COST AVOIDANCE TYPE around in a space
VSLAM (3D) ↑ ↑ Camera+ ↗ ↗ Possible M (F/T) “Conventional SLAM is basically 2D SLAM where you see
AMR

the world along a 2D plane. There are more and more use
STIQs suggested acronym use

SLAM (2D) ↑ ↗ Any → ↗ Possible F/T/M cases that require 3D sensing to work in dynamic
Contour ↑ → Laser → ↗ Possible F/T environments. This requires 3D SLAM with camera or 3D-
LGV

Lidar with growing demand. People are trying to do this

Laser ↑ → Reflectors ↑ ↗ Possible F/T in-house but it requires a lot of effort so some companies
© STIQ Ltd, 2020
Datametric ↑ → QR Markers ↗ ↘ No M leverage 3rd party providers.” [Kudan]
• Component suppliers such as Nvidia are actively engaged
Magnetic ↑ ↓ Magnets ↗ ↓ No M/T in developing Visual SLAM and the ecosystem
AGV

“We are trying to see how far is it possible to go with

Optical ↑ ↓ Tape ↗ ↓ No M/T
vision and for the indoor environments it's quite possible
Induction ↑ ↓ Cable → ↓ No M/T that you can have a completely vision based stack that
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis. Note that multiple vendors also deploy odometry and/or other sensors to localise their vehicles you can deploy. So what that will do is make your robots
definitely more… aware of the environment, so it will
NAVIGATION TECHNOLOGY INTRO* • Furthermore, for vehicles that operate outdoors, have a better semantic understanding, but it will also
• Note that this is a highly simplified introduction to the additional navigation technology and sensors may be bring the prices down, because now you have to use six
many different navigation technologies deployed with required grade cameras … you know, compared to the Lidar
AGV & AMR robots and feature wholesale MAPPING TECHNOLOGY INTRO* pricing.” [Nvidia]
generalisations of often complex technologies • Mobile robots use maps to navigate and these vary from “At Nvidia we have an SDK called Isaac SDK which
• The listed navigation technologies answer three basic 1D to 2D and more recently 3D provides a complete Lidar based SLAM solution. It includes
questions for mobile robots: • 1D: Line follower (X). The robot simply regulates the everything from localization, mapping, path planning, and
• Where is a robot (location)? speed. Low computing power required global and local localization. It's a complete SLAM solution
• Where does it need to go (destination)? • 2D: Map follower in a single plane (X/Y), such as based on LIDAR based navigation and the second thing we
• What route may it use to get there (route planning)? Datametric or pre-loaded CAD drawing. Typically use also provide for SLAM is a visual odometry stereo based
• Most of the navigation technologies above work in the single plane lidar for localization. Medium computing visual odometry package, which we call Albras.” [Nvidia]
* Hugely simplified

majority of indoor environments, but there are edge power required • 3D SLAM or Visual SLAM is interesting because vendors
cases that may require a specific navigation technology • 3D: Full world map (X/Y/Z). Very high computing can use the global map created in simulation and for
• For example, dusty environments or where light power required. Uses 3D sensors for localization & other visualisation purposes
conditions vary a lot, etc. navigation 6

OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE: USAGE OFTEN DEPENDS ON THE APPLICATION AND IF THERE ARE
PERFORMANCE RELATED SLAs OR KPIs
OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE: THE VENDOR VIEW
• Obstacle avoidance is a feature that elicits strong
feelings
• STIQs analysis and conversations have identified edge
cases where obstacle avoidance is used extensively and
those where it often is non-existent or turned off
• In applications where customers require a minimum
throughput level with strict SLAs, obstacle avoidance is
most likely not used
• An example of such applications may be end of
production lines where there is a steady stream of
products that need to go into storage at a constant
speed
“With systems where we have to guarantee the transports
per hour, we want to know we have direct routes with no
obstacles. And if the customer depends more on a very
flexible system with a not really clear environment and a
lot of changes, then it should be more of an AMR based
system. If you have an output where you know you have
to send out a set number of pallets each hour then you
should also have a system which is able to do that. And if
customers require more flexibility then it is more the AMR
solutions that are important. There is always a little bit
more critical issue where you have to have a set
throughput of the system.” [DS Automotion]
• Vendors may also try to restrict people movements
where robots are being used to minimize costs and
maximise output, but this is not always possible and
additional sensors may be added to ensure safe
operations
OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE SWEETSPOT
Strict KPIs
Obstacle avoidance
feature “sweetspot”
Controlled Dynamic
Environment Environment
Open Performance
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis
“We try as far as possible to restrict manual activities
around the AGV’s. But the more you go into third party
logistic companies, these restrictions gets eroded quite
quickly. So you then have to adapt… and that adaption is
to have more safety sensors on vehicles than what you
would normally have in a restricted area. You just accept
that it's going to be like this. Then you have to make sure
that you're covered with sensors and detection systems.
This is quite important really, that you understand and
appreciate the environment where your vehicles are going
to work.” [MaxAGV]
OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE: THE CUSTOMER VIEW
• Where customers themselves are responsible for
deployments, obstacle avoidance may be a welcome
feature
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• An example of such applications may include work in
progress intralogistics
“We use obstacle avoidance, especially as a manufacturer.
I think when you get into the warehouses it's not used as
much, but when you get into the manufacturing plants,
there's always people walking around. We use AMRs for
work in process movements and they're actually working
right next to the assembly lines moving back and forth,
and there the obstacle avoidance is used frequently
because it's coming up on an operator or somebody left a
box in the way.” [Anonymous AGV & AMR User]
• Whilst vendors mainly get positive signals from users of
obstacle avoidance, not all are convinced
“Some customers say, they have bad experience with
obstacle avoidance and that they prefer the AMR to stop
and to wait until the obstacle is gone. But, we are
currently putting a lot of effort into obstacle avoidance
because we think it will be very important for customers.”
[Continental]
FACTORY SPACE STANDARDS + MULTI TASKS
• Interviews also suggested that if standards are adhered
to, there may not be a requirement for obstacle
avoidance
“If you have a good order production, you have good
standards, there'll be nothing on the road. So, I don't see a
need for obstacle avoidance technology to be super smart.
I believe that better integration with production, better
prioritisation of the tasks, so it's not only single missions,
but able to create more complex machines… go to one
production stage, another one, then another connection
without coming back to the base. This is more important
than if it is avoiding the obstacles or not.” [Indoorway]
7

AGV & AMR TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION: TOWARDS INTEROPERABILITY
AN APPROXIMATE HISTORY OF AGV & AMR ROBOTICS EVOLUTION
1970’S 1980’S 1990’S
• The AGV introduced • The LGV introduced
• Lidar evolved from 1960’s • SLAM concept evolved
• QR code introduced
Source: STIQ Ltd Research & Analysis
MOBILE ROBOT EVOLUTION
• Mobile robot technologies, such as AGVs have been in
existence for 50+ years
• Fast forward to the 2010’s and the development of
computing power coupled with AI algorithms laid the
foundation for much of the current SLAM navigation
technology
• Whilst developments continue, overall AI technology is
nearing maturity
“I think we have seen the top of the iceberg because now
AMR technology is in a maturing phase. It's not new and
exciting anymore. It is in a maturing phase where… like
computers… you either get faster and better to keep the
price level or lower the price because it's becoming more
commoditized. So we will see, once the supply chain &
component situation normalizes again, we may see the
price tendency in the medium to longer term going down,
or vendors offering more differentiated value added
features to the robots. Customers that value safety,
security, and these things, they look less at the price and
more about the safety of their employees.” [MIR]
FREE NAVIGATION AND SAFETY
• As the AMR (SLAM guided) appeared it also forced a
rethink about safety when there are vehicles that may
move anywhere without any safety fences
2000’S 2010’S 2020’S
• Kiva Systems founded • Obstacle avoidance introduced
• ROS introduced • MIR founded • Standards introduced
• The AMR evolves • Interoperability
• Multi-environment
“SLAM guidance has affected safety requirements -
especially when people can be expected in the
surrounding area, then safety is always a key issue.
Usually it's the AGV producer who has to take care of the
vehicle safety certification. The component supplier also
has to fulfil certain requirements, especially with the
involvement of controller systems that control for
example safe torque off and speed changes, etc. I would
say this has become more important over the last years or
so. Also for higher payloads safety is of obvious
importance too.” [Maxon]
• Safety is a key issue when designing new robots
“The main trend is definitely on the safety side. Let's say
at least on our projects it's one of the main focus.
Customers are adding more safety requirements. Of
course, this is becoming standard for them and for us.
Norms have their own evolution and so on… Safety has
definitely been a trend in recent years. But when the
customers design new vehicles, new concepts, than of
course they increase the safety requirements, but don’t
want to sacrifice other drive system characteristics, like
compactness, performance, etc.” [Mobotic]
POST 2020’S EVOLUTION
• Interviews with customers highlighted the requirement
for mobile robots that can move in and outside
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“One of our projects is with a factory where they were
actively looking for a solution to automate a tugger
vehicle that moved in between buildings, outside and
inside. This was a very boring job and our customer
struggled with high staff turnover. We automated their
existing vehicle.” [GIM Robotics]
• Whilst this is unlikely to be the case for most robots, this
may be a growing trend beyond the 2020’s
• This will overlap with autonomous vehicles that are
developed for outdoors environments, such as yards and
ports and the wider autonomous car sector
• Component suppliers are actively developing sensors for
this type of application
“We just have launched a radar based system that is more
suitable to be integrated for short and mid-range
applications and can also be used in a sensor fusion
architecture. It is mostly beneficial for applications,
typically as an anti-collision avoidance solution, where the
vehicles travel out- and inside buildings and have even to
operate under harsh environmental condition.” [SICK]
FUTURE: INEVITABLE INTEROPERABILITY?
• There is a clear trend towards more customers deploying
AGV & AMRs from different vendors and experiencing
issues with interoperability
• This would potentially mean that the many different
robots on a factory floor will be given a priority status,
i.e. cleaning robots may be given the lowest priority (get
out of the way) and robots with the highest payloads top
priority (I break for no other robot), etc.
8

INCREASING NUMBER OF STANDARDISATION INITATIVES FOCUSING ON INTEROPERABILITY
THE INTEROPERABILITY STANDARD
• Currently there are multiple interoperability standards in
development with the aim of managing multiple
vendor’s robots
• In Europe, the VDA5050 standard is driven by the
German automotive sector and in North America, the
Interop standard is driven by MassRobotics
• Many AGV & AMR suppliers to the German automotive
industry have adapted VDA5050
“As you probably know we are completely based on the
VDA5050 standard. I would consider our service a
benchmark on the VDA5050 implementation.” [SYNAOS]
• However, standards do not travel easily
“I have heard zero requests from North American
automotive customers for VDA5050… But, I'd say I see
interoperability as key. There's no question that
independent and isolated islands of automation is not a
great long term play. That's not where the value is. That's
a transitional form in the industry. And eventually you
know what customers are buying… and this is what I talk
about even with our employees, customers aren't buying
robots because robots are cool. They want robots because
they want to solve a business problem around material
flow.” [Seegrid]
INTEROPERABILITY - A POTENTIAL THREAT?
• Interviews suggested that some vendors view
interoperability standards as a potential threat
“VDA5050… That’s a direction which we don't want to
go… the whole reason for that is that buyers want to
squeeze AMR suppliers easier.” [Anonymous Vendor]
“Then the VDA5050 is also to try to commoditize AGVs for
automotive customers, which is another story... Let me
say in another way it will be a standard because for the
moment they have standardized only a small portion of
what is needed and the plans to cover the rest is maybe 2-
3 years…” [BlueBotics]
WAITING FOR A WINNER
• None of the standards currently in development offer
vendors a complete vision and many vendors are waiting
to see which standard will win
“There are number of different initiatives going on to
standardize the interface between the warehouse control
system and the AGVs. But of course that means that AGV
manufacturers have to think about whether they want to
be a vehicle manufacturer or if they want to be in the
software game too. And we have seen that actually by
putting effort in software development also, not just in
the vehicles, you can actually differentiate. You can get
more out of the fleet. You can improve the performance
and capacity for your customers. So that's why the
software is very important for us.” [Logisnext]
“We've been invited to sit on the VDA5050 committee…
We follow developments and see what comes out. And
then we prepare for being compliant. But, in general, we
have interfleet on the radar when we develop because
you also have the US trying to push a standard from their
side and in Japan… So who's the winner in this standards
development? And if you bet on somebody it may exclude
somebody else… So we're just following it for the time
being…” [MIR]
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“So standards change the market and I think this VDA5050
will become at least in automotive, a standard that
everybody has to deal with. I don't necessarily think it will
change the landscapes of winners and losers because it's
not directly impacting what the robot does. It's more of a
traffic control and specially controlling multiple categories
of robots in the same environment sort of thing.” [Geek+]
LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR
• One interview suggested that part 2 (navigation, on
vehicle) of VDA5050 may be more difficult than part one
(fleet manager) due to market fragmentation
“If you have a standard like VDA5050, basically for many
parts of the technology you will have to adapt to the
lower level of efficiency, because if you want to make
robots work together... If someone has a magic product,
it's not compatible with the other ones, so I I'm not saying
that we do magic ourselves, but…” [Anonymous Vendor]
• Furthermore, some vendors have evolved technologies
that may not be easily integrated with standards
“It’s written in the description that Autonomous systems
are excluded, but the extension of the standard has been
announced how to include an autonomous system into
the VDA. But it's not available so it's hard for us… but
some customers want us to adopt it… It's very hard for us
to do. But we'll see, I think it will take at least two years
for the next part of the standards to be published.”
[Agilox]
9

INTEROPERABILITY POSES MANY QUESTIONS OF THE INDUSTRY. COULD IT BECOME A
POTENTIAL DRIVER OF SECTOR CONSOLIDATION?
“Controlling heterogenous fleets of robots… So there's
only one shopfloor and you have to share it. And, sharing
it means in the end that there's one system above all the
others, no matter how deep you integrate. VDA5050 is
one option for this, but because of the fragmented market
today you need to kind of go for the lowest common
denominator… and the question may be how useful that
may be in the end.” [Anonymous Vendor]
• Some vendors consider standards may be a helpful tool
in guiding customer expectations of AMRs
“Customers expect that AMRs are easier to use, install,
change, etc. But they also have the experience that it's not
also always so easy. Some suppliers may be telling the
customers it is very easy… Between the customer
expectation and what the supplier is able to deliver,
should include the roadmap for the next 1-2 years to get a
clear idea of possible AMR functionality. At the moment
the German VDE is really active to get more clarity on
what can be done with an AMR. We want to get more
technical details to assist the customer to decide what
kind of AMR solution and functionality is important for
them and also to check with the suppliers what can they
deliver.” [DS Automotion]
PRODUCT RANGE VS INTEROPERABILITY
• Multiple vendors have broadened their product ranges
to cover a wide range of applications which may also be
offered as a kind of interoperability solution
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From a technical standpoint, it is possible for a customer • No, because:
to have multi-vendor AGV/AMRs running together, but • Mobile robots may become prohibitively expensive
likely not within the same application but in separated (as a solution) for customers as they may be required
operations under one WES/WCS system. Interoperability to take complete fleet ownership and either develop
is a sort of a trend that customers are interested in, both in-house software or buy standardised robots and
from the supply and demand side. From our standpoint, software separately
we have a wide variety of robotics products and partners • There are too many variations of business models in
that we feel, in many ways, already make us the market
interoperable.” [Geek+] • Some current vendors may simply pivot into service
STANDARDS DRIVING M&A? providers and/or system integrators with software
• Interviews with vendors typically touch on consolidation • AGV & AMR Robotics still require customisation
and why this is not yet occurring to a larger extent in the
market
• The opposite is currently happening and more
companies are joining the sector than those acquired
• But, will the introduction of standards at individual robot
level catalyse further consolidation?
• STIQs view is both yes and no
• Yes, because:
• Margins may come under pressure and consolidation
could potentially achieve volume benefits in
component sourcing, production processes, etc.
• Vendors may increasingly move towards offering
robots only without any advanced software (some
already do)
• Some vendors may acquire/merge to gain ready-
made access to new customer types or territories
10
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
STIQ IDENTIFIED SIX BASIC AGV & AMR BUSINESS MODELS THAT ARE OFTEN COMBINED
DEPENDING ON VEHICLES AND TECHNOLOGY USED
BUSINESS MODELS IN THE AGV & AMR ROBOTICS SECTOR • The complexity with forklift robots is often related to
chassis construction and the tight tolerances required for
• Provides a fully integrated robot, both HW + SW converting these to autonomous vehicles
• SW includes fleet manager BUSINESS MODEL EXAMPLES
• Many vendors mix & match business models to serve
• Vendors of autonomy stack • Provides the HW component
customers
• Can include both navigation software • Mainly chassis hardware, but can also
HS • For example, vendor A (illustrative only) may have sold
(on vehicle), Fleet Manager, integration be a complete manual vehicle that can
AGV ‘line following’ vehicles for 20 years including a
layer and more
S H be converted into an AGV/AMR
Fleet Manager solution and would hence fall within
business model HS
• If the same vendor wants to add AMRs (using SLAM
© STIQ Ltd, 2020
navigation) to their range, but finds setting up a new
• Electric material handling vehicle • Uses internal autonomy stack that is software development team prohibitively expensive,
manufacturers that buy in autonomy +S +H not sold as free software instead opting to buy in software from an S vendor, they
software • Converts vehicles into AGV/AMR would then be using the +S business model
• Increasingly includes machinery makers
diversifying into mobile robots
+H+S • STIQs research has highlighted that multiple vendors in
the AGV & AMR sector often make use of a combination
of business models, especially as they grow and want to
• System integrator of other type of offer a more complete solution
customer that buys in both HW+SW • Interviews have highlighted that some vendors may
adapt to 3rd party navigation vendors as and when
required
SIX MAIN BUSINESS MODEL TYPES • Furthermore, a system integrator or main contractor for “Geek+ owns and develops navigation software that is
• STIQ identified six main broad business models used by a larger automation project may buy in off-the-shelf AGV embedded into our own AMRs, and we’re also able to
the majority of AGV & AMR Robotics vendors & AMRs or go to a sub-contractor switch to a 3rd party navigation system as required by
• Note that some vendors may use different business • Companies also continue to evolve and some vendors integrator partners.” [Geek+]
models for different robots, for example an AGV can that may have relied on third party software may have
sometimes be managed with hardware knowledge and in-sourced the development of their own software
components only, but adding an AMR could require third • Each form factor has slightly different business models
Note that STIQ offers a free 30min debrief for customers &
party software • Mouse vendors typically build their own chassis and buy
buyers of AGV or AMRs. This can be structured as a walk
• There may also be some overlap across the business in software
through or as a Q&A session.
models • For forklift vendors, and to a lesser extent tuggers, there
is a huge variety of business models email: tom@styleintelligence.com
11

NAVIGATION SOFTWARE A POPULAR CATEGORY. ENABLES AUTONOMY FOR ELECTRICAL
MATERIAL HANDLING VEHICLES.
NAVIGATION SOFTWARE VENDORS, 2010-2021 (#) • Software vendors also provide a level of consulting to
%CAGR allow new vendors to get up and running fast
2010-2021 “we are providing the software and we also provide
consultancy in the robot design step... Such as component
26 27 27 Total 9.3%
24 selection, sensors, etc. We started doing more generic
20
robotics engineering with our customers because they are
18 typically builders of machinery. So we propose a three
14 15 step approach. So it's a ramp up with customers.” [Beta
13 13
10 11 Robots]
• STIQs impression was that some businesses were [more
or less] pivoting their businesses towards the software
(S) business model
“I think our business model over time… the value that we
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
provide is going to be in in the software… the recurring
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis. Company foundation year revenue SaaS… If you look at a manually powered forklift
Note: Slowdown in company foundations in 2020 & 2021 may be due to
vehicle, it's pretty much a bag of commodity parts. The
companies not exiting stealth or that they have not started marketing,
etc. real value in what we provide is in the autonomy
software, it's not even in the hardware kit.” [Vecna
NAVIGATION SOFTWARE Robotics]
• Off the shelf navigation software enables many different “What we did already is, we've taken our autonomy stack
types of businesses with electrical vehicles to diversify and have implemented it on several fork-type vehicles.
into offering AGV & AMRs, in many cases in less than a Our idea is not to develop off-the-shelf navigation
year software but to offer a complete solution.” [Gideon
“I don't remember… the record, but we have found a big Brothers]
difference between customers we sign, when they have • Interviews have indicated that a number of companies
already sold to the end customer, and those that haven’t. have attempted to pivot into navigation software, but
That's the key point. Because we are quite quick to make found that the resources required to support and
the prototype or the product integrated and ready to maintain often different vehicles, kinetics, etc. were
work, but then if they still have to convince the customer prohibitive
and so on, this may take more time.” [BlueBotics]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
KIT SUPPLIERS EMERGING
• A few component vendors were starting to offer a wider
range of products for robot vendors that may lack a
specialist procurement function
“We provide key systems and components for Mobile
Robots. Within each of the product segments we try to
extend our offerings horizontally and vertically. In the
area of drive systems, for example, we are trying to
provide more integrated and extended solutions to our
customers, who appreciate our understanding and
knowledge around AGV/AMRs. Example of an integration
would be steered-traction unit for omnidirectional AMRs.”
[Mobotic]
• The consensus was that the earlier component suppliers
are involved, the better for the innovation process
“The earlier the component producers are involved in R&D
the better. That's my experience from the last 30 years
with drive systems. You can gain from each others
experience if working together in an early stage and you
may be able to use standard products or at least some of
them, instead of having to customise.” [Maxon]
“Startups are often laser focused on developing their
solution. And at the end of the R&D process they start to
think about the energy…they contact us and say ok now I
need a battery, but they often don’t know what kind of
battery they need and how this battery should be
specified. Our feeling is that the battery is often…I would
say not perfectly matched to the application. If the
startups would talk to us earlier, we could offer insights
and help them with their energy requirements to optimize
the battery specification and minimize the cost.” [Varta]
12
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
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NEARLY 39% OF VENDORS OUTSOURCED NAVIGATION SOFTWARE DUE TO COMPLEXITY

NAVIGATION SOFTWARE SOURCES 2021 (%) • STIQ identified 30 pureplay software vendors developing ILLUSTRATIVE NAVIGATION SOFTWARE BY FORM FACTOR
and selling mobile robot navigation and/or fleet
manager software in 2021 100%
Own
21% • There is an expectation that the quantity of software Unknown
vendors will increase in the short term as developments
Unknown 40% of open source software, such as ROS, are breaking
n=268* down barriers to entry, especially in lower payload
50%
segments and for robots with standard kinetics External
SOFTWARE COMPLEXITY
39% • Line guided AGVs primarily use embedded software &
Third Party controls in sensors to follow various guides and rarely Own
0%
require advanced edge computers
Mouse Tugger Fork
* n= number of vendors that use own software or outsource to third parties. • AMRs and LGVs often require a higher degree of
Excludes pureplay software vendors computational power and standalone navigation Source: STIQ Research & Analysis
Source: STIQ Ltd Research & Analysis Note: Some vendors may use external software for some of their ranges
software to combine and fuse input from sensors
and use own navigation technology for others
• Note that SLAM navigated robots with lower payloads
NOTE ON USING THESE STATISTICS (<100Kgs), such as P2G Robots often deployed in e-
• For startups that may consider using this page for your commerce environments, rarely have to dock with other • Reasons for this may include:
pitch deck: note that these charts use generalisations material handling systems and therefore require less • Many manual forklift vendors have elected to
• The chart above is based on the number of vendors that demanding operational tolerances partner with navigation software companies rather
use own software vs vendors that deploy third party • Hence, navigation software that has been developed for than setting up internal development teams
software; this is different to the number of sold robots such applications can not be easily converted into • Safety aspects of the navigation software are critical
that may use own or third party software navigation software for a vehicle with different drive and buying in from known third party specialists may
configurations or higher payloads
SOFTWARE BUSINESS MODEL STATISTICS • STIQs view is that this was the reason for Locus’s 2021
add comfort to end customers
• STIQ identified c.33% more AGV & AMR Robotics • There are plenty of exceptions and edge cases in the
acquisition of Waypoint; note that Locus is covered in forklift segment that may only be identified and fixed
vendors in 2021 compared to 2020
STIQs G2P Solutions [link] report whilst Waypoint is after many years of operating in a live environments
• Whilst the number of known vendors with third party
included in the AGV & AMR Robotics sector report • The navigation software cost is a smaller % of the
software remained stable at 39%, the number of vendors
with own software was 21% (27% in 2020) and unknown 3RD PARTY SOFTWARE BY FORM FACTOR cost of a vehicle (when compared to other form
was 40% (34% in 2020) • Although third party software appeared to be relatively factors) and outsourcing may not have a significant
popular across form factors, STIQs research indicated impact on margins
that the forklift form factor has potentially been the
most popular by share of users 13

OPEN SOURCE ROBOT SOFTWARE NOT YET COMMERCIALLY VIABLE. INITIATIVES ARE
ACCELERATING DEVELOPMENT. HEAVYWEIGHT INVOLVEMENT. FOCUS ON VISUAL SLAM
USE OF OPEN SOURCE/ROS
• ROS is a framework that bring together multiple
software modules/packages required for operating a
mobile robot
• Interviews have suggested that a number of vendors
have incorporated parts of the ROS framework
combined with a significant proportion of proprietary
software
• The wider consensus was that using exclusively open
source packages would not create a commercially viable
product
OPEN SOURCE IMPROVING
• Whilst open source ROS is far from being used in
commercial applications, important component suppliers
such as Nvidia are working to improve the overall
performance of ROS
“We're making sure that the commonly used robotics
algorithms like path planning, localization, collision
checking, running AI inference object detection… we're
making sure we are accelerating each of these things. But
really, in order to get a full accelerated robotics
application, you need to go one level down and say, well,
how are these all being stitched together? Where is the
engine running it? And that's where ROS comes in. A lot of
our customers use ROS as a framework. We recently
announced a partnership with OSR. Nvidia will work
closely with them to make sure that when you take each
of these components and you put them together to make
your application graph, that should be running optimally.
We are working with OSR to make some modifications to
the ROS middleware to enable that. And we also do that
with the Isaac engine that we develop in house…
… So some customers want to use the one that Nvidia is
providing and others want to use the ROS framework
because they have a lot of legacy stuff they can continue
to use their algorithms and still get the acceleration.”
[Nvidia]
• This extends to developing individual software
components
“There are pieces that are from open source, like G
mapping. But then there are pieces that Nvidia has
developed to accelerate it and make them high
performance. For example, global localization that we
have developed in-house to improve the time it takes to
localise the robot. You know when you turn it on it’s able
to do global localization using the GPU acceleration. So we
have taken pieces from open source, developed things in
house and made it perform so that it can be used in a
commercial setting.” [Nvidia]
• This also includes promoting the entire component
ecosystem including hard and software
“We have a huge ecosystem around on Jetson… about 250
partners now and it's growing really fast. They span
from… you want a robot box for your computer with a
specific environmental specs. You don't need to go design
yourself. You call up one of our ecosystem partners and
they'll build it for you. You need a particular sensor you
call one of our partners and you get it.” [Nvidia]
SIMULATION TOOLS: CUSTOMERS
• Simulation may extend from calculating the optimal
number of robots for a particular application to full 3D
visual simulation
• Interviews have suggested that whilst the Excel
calculation is always a part of the process, visual
simulation is used less frequently
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
• Developments in Visual SLAM currently allow vendors to
create a visual map (“3D image”) of a warehouse or
factory interior and superimpose robots running around
to provide potential buyers a way to visualise
deployments in a near reality format
SIMULATION TOOLS: VENDORS
• However, simulation may also be used to train robots
and this is an increasing area of interest
• In 2018, Amazon announced RoboMaker, a simulation
tool for mobile robots [link] available to the public via
AWS
• In 2021, Nvidia announced its Omniverse tool which also
includes a simulation tool
“Simulation is one area we are investing in a lot. We have
a platform called Isaac SIM which is built on top of
omniverse. Omniverse is essentially the underlying
platform where we are bringing all your 3D content. Isaac
SIM is a vertical application focused on robotics. It has a
really high fidelity physics engine, which is important for
robotics. It is designed for scale, so you're not limited to
simulating something that's a small room with one robot;
you want to simulate an entire giant factory with
thousands of robots you can do that. You can simulate the
entire workflow, not just the robot controls, but the entire
factory level workflow. If you are limited to people having
access to the physical robot and building it, it's going to be
extremely slow. The only way to accelerate development
and deployment of robots is to make engineering possible
in a simulation. Everything should be able to done to be
able to be done in a simulator.” [Nvidia]
14

THE F2F FORKLIFT IS A RECENT TREND. OUTSOURCED NAVIGATION SOFTWARE ALLOWED
MANY NEW VENDORS TO ADD VEHICLES FAST
EXAMPLES OF LOW FORM FACTOR FORKLIFTS
Image source: Geek+, Karter, Agilox, Nipper, Lowpad
Note: Not all pictured vehicles use outsourced software
THE EMERGENCE OF THE LOW FORM FACTOR
• The low form factor AMR forklift for floor to floor (F2F)
pallet movements emerged a few years ago and has
been adopted by a wide range of vendors
• This type of vehicle mimics manual pallet truck
functionality and lift heights are typically limited to <1m,
often less
• The premise was that a large volume of pallets are
moved from one floor location to another
“I guess 60-70% of pallet movements are ground to
ground. So you don't really need the height and you do
remove a bunch of cost if you remove that functionality.”
[The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz]
• Readily available navigation software has been a key
contributing factor to the now widespread and speedy
adoption of this form factor across the sector
OPEN PALLET SUCCESS
• F2F robots have largely been successful in Europe and a
key part of that success has been the widespread use of
standardised EUR pallets or “open pallets”
• The advantage of F2F forklifts is the very compact form
factor that is possible with EUR pallets and many
vendors have integrated omni-directional kinetics to
allow robots to move in any direction
THE CLOSED PALLET DILEMMA
• However, many F2F vendors have faced significant
barriers to adoption outside Europe and the primary
reason for this is the use of “closed pallets” in many
parts of the world outside of Europe
“I would say 60% of the pallets that we encounter in India
are open pallets.” [The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz]
• Closed pallets have proven very difficult for F2F robots
as these include a sill that robots have to drive over
• The current option is to use counterbalanced or reach
type forklifts
• Interviews have suggested that multiple vendors are
attempting to overcome the closed pallet dilemma, but
to STIQs knowledge there were no F2F robots for use
with closed pallets at the time of publishing this report
“We have released a low form factor pallet truck. This lifts
20-30cms. Obviously this is optimised for open pallets and
is an issue that we're running into right now in Asia,
where they almost always or exclusively are using closed
pallets. But, we have some of our smartest people
working on that problem now.” [ForwardX]
“Closed pallets are the norm in the U.S. and parts of Asia.
We have designs in the works to handle closed pallets
with a low form factor agile forklifts.” [Geek+]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
SIMPLIFIED PALLET TYPE USE BY CONTINENT
• ‘Open’ EUR pallet
• Access to pallet from
• Closed pallet
floor, no hinders
• Access to pallet only
via sill
Source: STIQ Ltd Research & Analysis
Note: Interesting statistics on pallet design & use by sector [Wikipedia]
CHALLENGING THE MOUSE FORM FACTOR
• The F2F vehicle may be viewed as a mix between a
mouse and a forklift
• The advantage of the F2F lift is that users do not need to
add infrastructure or fixtures where a mouse vehicle can
drive under and pick up a payload
• Despite the potential for competition, there were no
immediate plans to diversify
“This AMR forklift is the next level to having no
infrastructure in terms of lifting pallets from the ground.
So we recognize this challenge.” [Anonymous Vendor]
“Yes, so we will likely stay in the forklift area. So we are
not really trying to go into the platform market now. So
within that I would say the next 1-2 years that's not the
topic because that's, for us, a totally different market,
totally different application. And so we'll focus on the
forklifts.” [Agilox]
15

THE FORKLIFT SEGMENT IS HIGHLY COMPLEX AND OFTEN INCLUDES CROSS SELLING,
PARTNERSHIPS, ETC.
FORKLIFT BUSINESS MODELS
• Vendors of autonomous forklifts broadly break into two
segments: those that convert manual forklift vehicles
and those that build their own ‘dedicated’ vehicles
• Converted manual vehicles have the advantage that they
have a cheaper up front cost but may require slightly
more maintenance compared to more expensive
specialist forklifts
“We started off by converting manual vehicles, but we
realized that unless we have very deep connections to
some of these vehicles, it doesn't really make sense. So
we decided that we would have our own design. We are
focused on the sort of ground to ground movement and
ground to one level movement. So essentially the
conveyor to ground level.” [The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz]
“I mean we have our own fully in-house built VNA truck.
We have installed the first ones in the beginning of 2021.
Before this we used Fenwick trucks and automated these
trucks for VNAs. Now we have our own. These vehicles are
so special. We have put some additional features on like
the vision, the camera vision to make sure we place
pallets on the right position at 12 meters height. Because
as you know, it shakes a bit at that height if you have two
tonnes. We decided to build our own machine to be able
to have the full control on this…” [Alstef Group]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“We moved away from converting manual forklifts 3-4 "We have a partnership with Mitusbishi Logisnext.
years ago. The cost side on manual vehicles is very Ultimately, our technology is going to be integrated right
appealing, but we think from a lifetime value side, off the factory floor. Right now, like everyone else in the
specialised vehicles are better. That is our experience. world, our biggest constraint is the supply chain and we
Customers are also able to do manual control of our have customers that need to get vehicles that need to get
vehicles with a cable, controller and a joystick. But, this is integrated. So while we are a software company, we're
an expensive vehicle that is built to drive automatically.” dealing with hardware as well.“[Phantom Auto]
[DS Automotion] • And, the top global forklift manufacturers are
THE OEM ANGLE increasingly investing in robotics companies
• Increasingly when converting manual vehicles, vendors
need to establish very good collaborations with OEMs to
access digital systems on forklifts, such as CAN buses,
etc.
“I think there are a few historical reasons why our forklifts
are used extensively by converters. The market presence
of Linde's network. So I think a lot of especially these
smaller automation companies are benefiting from the
situation that then a Linde dealer can do these services,
let's say basic things like changing wheels and so on. I
guess also, it's based on the dealer network that our
dealers could talk directly to a lot of small companies as
well when turning the vehicles into robots. We also offer a
few customised options for companies that want to make
vehicles autonomous.” [Linde]
• OEM partnerships continue to be a feature in the forklift
segment
16
CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS
SEGMENTATION 4
TECHNOLOGY 5
BUSINESS MODELS 11
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
INTERVIEW WITH USER OF AGVs & AMRs 18
Free distribution of this report was enabled by: JOURNEY DETAILS 19
GROWTH
AGV & AMR MARKET 23
GROWTH BY INDUSTRY SECTOR 25
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION 27
AGV & AMR DEMOGRAPHICS
VENDOR GROWTH 31
ACCESS TO TALENT 35
FUNDING AND M&A
SECTOR FUNDING 39
NOTABLE M&A TRANSACTIONS 41
COMPANY PROFILES 44
CREDITS, INTERVIEWEES & SPONSOR 57
MARKET SIZE DATA Contact us

17

INTERVIEW: DRIVING MANUFACTURING INNOVATION IN A MULTI-VENDOR AGV & AMR
ROBOTS ENVIRONMENT
DEPLOYING A MULTI-VENDOR ENVIRONMENT
• The company has divided responsibility for robots
between industrial (fixed robots) & services robots
(mobile robots)
• Interestingly, both responsibilities include a budget to
explore new entrants in the market to stay on the
forefront of innovation
“We're really trying to drive innovation and not just be a
follower of technology. So we do set aside X amount of
money every year to do piloting and test new technology
out. And I think it's been a real advantage. The company is
interesting because in some aspects we're like
entrepreneurs internally… we're trying to go out and
discover things and figure out how to do things better. We
have budgets to test things and try to make us more
productive. We have a list of what we feel our future
requirements are and how we should be doing something.
Then we'll go and look across the globe and say, does
anybody match what we're trying to do?” [Anonymous
AGV & AMR User]
• New vendors are typically put through a rigorous due
diligence process including several meetings ending with
a walkthrough of facilities and an acceptance by vendors
that they can do what they say they can
“With a new supplier we want to see the guts of a robot.
We want to talk to the technical people, not just the sales
person, to understand really what the advantages are. If
we can get hold of the CEO, there are very few CEO’s of
our suppliers that I haven't talked to. And that's one of
the reasons we don't like to go through the integrators…
So we really want to understand the capability what it can
do. We go to see it operating at a vendor’s facility first.
We're then going to bring them on site. Covid has kind of
limited us on that…
… We want them to look at the application and agree that
their robot meets our requirements… we want them to
see our floor conditions and make sure that they agree
that they're signing up to go and look at how this
operates. We usually request the engineers on site…
especially if it's a brand new company… to support us for a
few weeks to make any modifications, tweaks that need
to be done. Before we sign off. We want to make sure that
as we go through the process, we're giving them feedback
on what we think needs changing or if we need little
tweaks here and we understand that this may not happen
right away from day one. But we want to know the project
path to get us to where we believe we need to be. A lot of
it, it seems really simple, but you know flooring
conditions… We have 1954 buildings, so we want to make
sure that they're walking the path with us and
understanding it.” [Anonymous AGV & AMR User]
• A key driver at the company is to be smart with robotics
and ensure that people accept working with them
“We're trying to be smart about automation and my thing
is always how do we get the automation to work for the
people vs. the people working for the automation.”
[Anonymous AGV & AMR User]
• The issue of interoperability has come to a head at the
company when mixing non-production robots with
production robots in the same environment
“So interoperability... I think the robot manufacturers see
interoperability as the customer wanting to just put a
different robot in place. They're thinking we want to
commoditize the asset. So in other words, if I buy a Geek+
one week and a MIR the next week, and if you bought a
Grenzebach the week after…
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
… I can have 10 different brands and I'm just going out
bidding trying to get the lowest price to do this. But my
argument is that this is not what we want to do. Our
argument is we really want fewer manufacturers, but the
problem is that all the vendors don't do what we need to
do. So we have to be able to have a Geek+ or a MIR talk to
a Balyo or to an Agilox or talk to an Avidbot cleaning
robot. And, because the cleaning robot can be in an aisle…
I want some sort of logic that says, hey this robot you
don't go down this aisle and follow this robot around, but
you tell that cleaning robot to stop cleaning and get the
heck out of the way when there is more important traffic
around. There's still some confusion around
interoperability. Europe is kind of trying to move forward
with VDA5050 and there's companies out there claiming
they can do it, but most of the software that I've looked at
so far for interoperability is really API… it's a platform for
API calls for clearing. It's not really a true
interoperability.” [Anonymous AGV & AMR User]
• One of the top concerns is that vendors simply upload
new software versions without notifying or allowing
tests
• Apparently, this had led to a few stops of robot fleets
with the potential consequence that production stops
“One of our big fears is if they dump new software down
into the robots and they don't tell us before. So we do try
to make it very clear that vendors tell us when there's a
new version and that they tell us when you think you're
going to download it. We do this with all vendors because
of a recent download that stopped a few robots.”
[Anonymous AGV & AMR User]
• We would love to include your views on the sector -
anonymously if you want, simply reach out to us 18
[email] for a chat

OPERATIONAL COSTS ARE OFTEN KEY FOR THE AUTOMATION JOURNEY. CUSTOMER TYPES
VARY ACROSS A WIDE SPECTRUM FROM NOVICE TO EXPERT
THE AUTOMATION JOURNEY
• Customers typically approach the problem with an aim
to improve efficiencies and AGV & AMR Robots may be
one solution for this
“Usually nobody is thinking in that way that they want
AGVs. The goal is rather they want to decrease the
operational cost, so they want to increase the efficiency or
something and how they can get there. So usually it
depends on what stage the organisation is at and their
knowledge of options and we can direct them somehow in
the right way.” [Indoorway]
• 3PLs are an interesting type of customer as they manage
a relationship with their customers which can often
influence if they automate or not
“We have a lot of customers who are asking us during
tenders or with contract negotiations - what can you do
on automation and what do you do on innovation? But we
always tell them - that's not the real question you're
asking, you just want to have a lower price and higher
productivity… Customers would like to see automation,
but only if it is cost effective, because otherwise they are
not interested.” [Anonymous 3PL]
• Customers range from the experienced with elaborate
plans how to roll out robotization whilst others are less
organized and may require a lot of training
“Some companies are really well organized. They already
have thought about the processes, the flow and so on. So
they may say ok, we buy multiple robots. But many
potential customers they have not even thought about the
workflows in their own processes, what they have to do,
because they simply think OK, we say that we have to pick
up this pallet and then just move it… I say no, have a think
and come back to us…” [Anonymous Vendor]
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS PROJECT DYNAMICS
A customer manages the
Experienced selection and deployment of
robots, re-routing, etc. Full
internal robot fleet
management
A general contractor or a
System Integrator manages the
whole project from A-Z, possible
Robots site management responsibility. Solutions
No need for customer to do
single deployments
Customer starting automation journey.
Significant vendor handholding &
training to deploy, re-route, etc.
Novice
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis
• Predominantly brownfield
• Hybrid manual environment • Greenfield or refurbished
• Single projects rarely exceed brownfield
$1m • Dedicated autonomous areas
• Frequently <10 units, • Projects regularly >$5m
individual vehicle sales • Solution sales
• Low barriers to entry • Significant/high barriers to entry
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
NOVICE SALES, TRAINING REQUIRED
• New customers that have not used robots before
typically require more work up front by vendors which
can be resource intensive
“Some of the companies that didn't think about
automation before the pandemic are now thinking about
automation. They may not have the experience. They
didn't do pilots. So for them this is a completely new
thing.” [Gideon Brothers]
• Customers sometimes think in terms of single process
changes, however, deploying automation often affects
adjacent processes or workflows
“Often times when we meet with customers that are
completely new to automation, they have a pre-
determined view on why robotics won’t work with their
current processes. During discovery, they learn that AMRs
are not only flexibly adaptable to existing operations, but
that some of their existing processes are actually bigger
barriers to entry than they were initially aware of. We
help the customer through this process to ultimately find
the right blend of adapting automation to current
workflows, while also talking through new, more efficient
steps to achieving higher productivity.” [Geek+]
“When customers start thinking about automation and
how that may change the overall flow of the goods…
selling AGV’s means you learn to provide that kind of
consultancy to customers… for customers to really think
about the changes to their flows. And then they often turn
to us and ask OK, since it's obvious that we probably
should change our process and have a little bit different
kind of racking solution, etc. Could you help us do that?
And this has guided us towards this logistics solutions
world. This is a clear requirement from the market.” 19
[Logisnext]

TRIALS CAN BE A USEFUL PROCESS… IF WELL EXECUTED FOR CUSTOMER AND VENDOR
“We're still in the mode as an industry where it's primarily
about changing a manual process to an automated process
versus supplanting a previous automated process with a
newer version. That's not really where the industry is. It's
much more of a process transformation.” [Seegrid]
• However, as soon as customers add multiple vehicles,
they may have to start thinking about robots as a
separate system
“Depending on the application, small fleets could not
imply big complexity, however, as soon as the fleet is
bigger like more than 3-4 robots, the customer has to
consider several factors. For example, traffic management
between different robots, battery charging strategy,
where to place the charging stations and waiting areas,
etc. Simulations can solve many situations prior to the real
deployment. [Omron]
• There are several layers of complexity with AGV & AMRs
and for a deployment with fewer than 4-5 vehicles there
is often no need for a Fleet Manager
• Once deployments increase, customers may want to
integrate the Fleet Manager with business systems such
as WMS or ERP
RUNNING TRIALS, PILOTS, POCs, ETC.
• Depending on a customer’s experience of running
automation, there may be a clear requirement to run a
trial or a proof of concept
• This may be designed as a way to help customers come
up with new ways to make their operations more
efficient
“One of our customers have more than 100 manual
forklifts that they want to replace step by step. They
bought one unit and now want to test it in the factory
production lines. This is for them to understand what they
have to do for the rest of the plant. Because the plant is
quite old, there’s a lot of tight spaces and small corridors
and all those kind of things. So they have to play around
with our robot to understand how it impacts the workflow
and so on… They have to learn because they do some
homework before ordering more.” [Karter]
“Forklifts move pallets and it's very easy for the customer
to see where they could use an automated forklift
because they have manual forklifts right now. And when
we have something that goes underneath and picks up a
trolley or a shelf or something that’s also very easy to see
‘ok yeah this one can pick up the things that I'm moving
around today’. Whereas if you just have a mouse
platform, then you need a little bit more imagination
about how do I use it… and certainly some customers have
a lot of imagination for sure, but then it very quickly
becomes complicated engineering intensive projects… and
what we do with the standard solution is you skip all that
integration work and the engineering work and you get an
out-of-the-box solution that does what you need it to do.
For a lot of, specially smaller projects, this is really helpful
that you don't have to spend a lot of engineering
resources to deploy your robots.” [Geek+]
CUSTOMISATION IN NEARLY ALL VEHICLES
• Customisation is very common in the AGV & AMR
Robotics sector, but may range from upgrading a drive
unit to completely new unique vehicles and is always
related to the application
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“Yeah, there's always some customization. Sometimes we
have double forks, sometimes we have a single conveyor
instead of three, stuff like that.” [Alstef Group]
“We have a base of AGVs and it’s 10’s of products in a
base. But I think the amount of times that we've produced
identical AGV's with no modifications is extremely rare.
There is nearly always some form of modification, from
the smallest to completely new machines.” [MaxAGV]
GREENFIELD VS BROWNFIELD
• AGV & AMR Robotics projects vary from adding single
robots in existing buildings to completely new
installations and buildings
“New installations tend to be highly automatized or
robotized versus, let's say brownfield. The majority of the
requests we get in the pipe is on Brownfield.” [Balyo]
“We have seen a huge increase of greenfield projects in
the last couple of years. 10-15 years ago there was almost
no greenfield at all. So we have seen a huge increase of
greenfields, while we also work on brownfield projects.
Right now we have several very large corporations that
are retrofitting a number of their warehouses with our
technology.” [E80 Group]
• For many greenfield sites, the AGV & AMR Robots are
planned from day 1, but often procured to be installed
once construction work has been completed
“When you have a new Greenfield building, a new
production site. It always runs out of the projected costs
anyway. So the first thing you do not do is the AGV.
Because you can do it manually… so the AGV comes in a
year or two years afterwards. While it was initially
planned, you know you will end up buying it one or two
years later.” [Alstef Group]
20

WHEN DOES A CUSTOMER TURN INTO A SOLUTION BUYER? A FEW VENDORS FOCUS ON
SOLUTIONS
AUTOMATION MAY BE THE ONLY OPTION
• In a few cases where volumes are too high, automation
may be the only option to manage processes
“Automation is sometimes used because volumes are too
high for manual operations. One of our customers runs
one of the biggest breweries in the world, and they
produce massive volumes of pallets per hour. Moving
these manually would have been impossible, so from day
one they invested in automation.” [E80 Group]
“There are also production lines where volumes have
become so large that it is simply not possible to handle it
manually. I mean, you know manual movement or manual
intervention operations are just not sustainable. So, we’re
seeing a move toward automation in these applications as
well.” [The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz]
SOLUTIONS VS SINGLE ROBOT SALES
• Buyers of AGV & AMRs range from novices that are
looking for their first move into robots to very
experienced buyers that may buy specific vehicles from
different vendors
• Beyond this, there are also buyers that buy in complete
solutions where AGV & AMRs feature as a core
component
• There appears to be a market requirement for more
solution sales
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS PROJECT DYNAMICS
A customer manages the
Experienced selection and deployment of
robots, re-routing, etc. Full
internal robot fleet
management
A general contractor or a
System Integrator manages the
whole project from A-Z, possible
Robots site management responsibility. Solutions
No need for customer to do
single deployments
Customer starting automation journey.
Significant vendor handholding &
training to deploy, re-route, etc.
Novice
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis
• Predominantly brownfield
• Hybrid manual environment • Greenfield or refurbished
• Single projects rarely exceed brownfield
$1m • Dedicated autonomous areas
• Frequently <10 units, • Projects regularly >$5m
individual vehicle sales • Solution sales
• Low barriers to entry • Significant/high barriers to entry
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“Our spearhead is AGVs and forklifts and we aim to make
pallets fly through a customer’s facility. But when we
focus on that and we look at our customers, processes and
facilities and what they try to do, we quite often recognize
that they might need to have other subsystems there as
well. We might put in palletizers, wrappers, conveyors or
even take care of racking and things like that. For us this is
a logistics solution that we provide for the customer.”
[Logisnext]
SOLUTIONS VS ROBOTS
• STIQs research has highlighted that vendors range from
robot suppliers to complete solution providers
• In between these edge cases there are many different
variations of companies
“Yes, you can think of us as a system integrators, but they
don’t normally make their own machines. We make
everything in-house, hardware and software for all our
systems. We also have our own WMS and WCS, which
allow us to deliver end-to-end fully integrated solutions.
Thanks to many years of R&D, we can provide any type of
material handling equipment that can be used to
automate a warehouse or distribution center” [E80 Group]
21
CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS
SEGMENTATION 4
TECHNOLOGY 5
BUSINESS MODELS 11
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
INTERVIEW WITH USER OF AGVs & AMRs 18
Free distribution of this report was enabled by: JOURNEY DETAILS 19
GROWTH
AGV & AMR MARKET 23
GROWTH BY INDUSTRY SECTOR 25
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION 27
AGV & AMR DEMOGRAPHICS
VENDOR GROWTH 31
ACCESS TO TALENT 35
FUNDING AND M&A
SECTOR FUNDING 39
NOTABLE M&A TRANSACTIONS 41
COMPANY PROFILES 44
CREDITS, INTERVIEWEES & SPONSOR 57
MARKET SIZE DATA Contact us

22

THE AGV & AMR ROBOTICS SECTOR RECORDED SIGNIFICANT GROWTH IN 2021
THE POST-PANDEMIC BOUNCE BACK
• Vendor interviews suggested that the post-pandemic
“bounce back” began in 2H20 and has continued apace
up to 4Q21
• Significant growth was a feature across the sector
“After the effects of the pandemic in 2020, we saw
significant growth in 2021 and expect that to continue
into 2022.” [Geek+]
“Our sales were up nearly 100% in the last 7-8 months.”
[Anonymous Vendor]
“The 1st quarter in 2021 was our best first quarter ever in
20 years.” [BlueBotics]
“This year we have been growing 50% in Q1 & Q2. We
have public numbers since we're trading through
Teradyne. In 2020 we didn't grow… or we grew 1%, mainly
due to Covid. You have to remember that we only sell
products, so our sales do not include anything else.” [MIR]
“We've had two record years bang in a row now and this
year has also been very busy.” [MaxAGV]
ILLUSTRATIVE SECTOR GROWTH, 2019-2021
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis
“I think for us it seems that that this year will be really
good. We are doing our best to double from last year, but
let's see… We feel that during the worst part of the
corona, customers were probably considering whether
they should make any investments and may have been
holding it up a little… so my feeling was that the market
got a bit stagnant during the corona. But for this year it
seems that the things changed and the floodgates opened.
And it's been really busy year for us. The market is really
booming right now” [Logisnext]
• Whilst there is more work, there is also more
competition in the sector
“Competitively the market has never been stronger, but
equally there's never been more work available.” [System
Logistics]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“My favourite word is acceleration… 20 years ago we all
hoped these days would come and you know, now they're
here, right now. When I started 20 some years ago, we
were heavily involved in the manufacturing sector,
moving materials around. And in other areas, other
industries, we were doing a lot of pilot programmes a lot
of beta sites, a lot of test cases, things like that.” [JBT]
• A few early stage startups also experienced good
traction
“We’re in that startup phase, so it is difficult for us to
measure the market… what I can say is that we've
increased tremendously in the last two years.” [Wiferion]
• Component suppliers also reported strong growth
(although they sell to many different sectors, not only
the AGV & AMR sector)
“We expect growth somewhere between 25-50% in 2021,
depending on the industry cluster or technology. Because
it is not only the AGV business which is increasing, but
also the traditional forklift truck seems to be recovering
positively from the pandemic crisis.” [SICK]
23

HUGE INCREASE IN NUMBER OF INQUIRIES. BUYER’S MENTALITY APPEARED TO HAVE
CHANGED. WILL GROWTH SIGNALS TURN INTO A PERMANENT UPLIFT?
INQUIRIES INCREASED FAST IN 2021
• Interviews also suggested that whilst 2020 had been
very challenging, the number of inquiries received in
2021 were at a very high level
“2020 was very challenging, Not only because the
factories were shutting down and customers were not
really investing in innovation. Just due to the fact that
they were not sure about the future. In 2021, I would say
that, based on our growth, we definitely have more
interest than in 2020… and even in 2019 I would say.”
[Gideon Brothers]
“The first half of the pandemic didn't help much because
customers only had enough time to deal with their own
things and it affected us in the sense of our own
development timeline. However, in the second half of the
this last little period, customers are now very happy to
work with us and make changes in their process to suit
us.” [Third Wave]
• The experience in individual countries varied
“We have doubled sales three years in a row, but I don't
see us doubling from last year. I think that there's still
some Covid hangover. But I'm still seeing really strong
buying signals, so some of it is just timing. Overall there
has been really strong growth. So I've been excited about
that.” [Seegrid]
“In 2020 it was hard for customers to evaluate our
technology. Customers were also going through their own
issues and it would have been almost impossible for them
to implement any new technology. In between there has
been a bit of a lull… But, I guess in February, March of this
year it really started to heat up… our sales pipeline… the
number of inquiries kind of went through the roof over
the past the past few months...” [Vecna Robotics]
ILLUSTRATIVE SECTOR GROWTH, 2019-2023F
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis
“We've had a few kind of scares here and there about new
Covid outbreaks. But, so far we've seen no negative
effects in terms of supply chain or in terms of buying
tendencies or anything like that.” [Forward X]
“2020 was a little bit of a tough year. Many orders have
been postponed in the first half of the year. But in the 3rd
quarter there was a big rapid spring of orders from
customers. Because the pandemic really encouraged
people to do the transformations.” [Standard Robots]
COVID – A CATALYST FOR FURTHER GROWTH
• A few interviews also highlighted that Covid may have
acted as a catalyst for opening up new markets
“Last year some projects were delayed due to Covid. But
we found new opportunities, mainly in the non-industrial
market. Right now, the projects that were delayed last
year are re-starting… we consider that industrial market
growth will return with higher levels than before. I think
that the Covid also helped us to open opportunities in
new sectors.” [Omron]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“Maybe my viewpoint is skewed because I've been in this
industry so long, but I see much more acceptance every
day of automation. And it's just taken on a new height, a
new emotion. Customers are at this point almost
desperate to automate. And in some cases it's even
beyond the business case ROI.” [JBT]
A NEW SENSE OF AUTOMATION URGENCY
• Customer interviews indicated that automation had
experienced increased priority
“Yes. I think the pandemic did speed up a couple of
projects. There is an increased openness and willingness
to look into these kind of solutions. So that's for sure. And
also, shipping prices and those kind of things… because
that now becomes more expensive and customers are
again looking at ok, how can we make our old supply
chain leaner and cheaper.” [Anonymous 3PL]
• This was reflected by the vendor experience
“I would say that people are actively looking, trying to
learn more. Because if you were a company that never
looked at automation or looked at it sporadically before
2020… it takes some time to do a strategy for automation.
I would say is there is bigger interest from the innovation
teams… or the technology acceleration teams. It seems
like they have a lot of work on their hands and they are
just scanning the market and seeing what's available…
choosing the right vendors to see which processes they
may be able to streamline using robots. And then I would
say that, in general and in my opinion, that 2022 will see a
bigger growth in the number of orders than 2021 did.”
[Gideon Brothers]
24

DEMAND VARIED SOMEWHAT BY INDIVIDUAL VERTICALS AND COUNTRIES. OVERALL VERY
POSITIVE
“2020 was a difficult year for many industries. However,
the pandemic forced a lot of companies to completely
rethink their existing processes. Those that were in better
positions to adapt to these changes have in many ways
forced the market to take a much more direct look into
automation. The conversation has shifted from, ‘should I
automate?’ to ‘how can I not?’” [Geek+]
VARIED POST-PANDEMIC SECTOR DEMAND
• Post-pandemic demand for AGV & AMR Robots varies by
sector served
• Whilst some normalcy has returned, supply chain
disruptions continue to ripple through global value
chains causing volatility in demand
• Vendors had different views on demand, which may be
related to their individual exposure, but overall the view
was of growth
“There's no particular market that is not growing at the
moment that we're seeing. But I think the market drivers
for implementing robots… the reason customers are
coming is changing a bit from previously being cost cutting
and saving money to now, especially in Europe and in
America… reshoring of production facilities… and doing
that in a smarter way.” [MIR]
FOOD & BEVERAGE CONTINUED GROWTH
• Vendors serving the food & beverage sector had not
experienced any significant downturn during the
pandemic
“And obviously… especially in the food and beverage
industry they've seen a continued rise in business
throughout the pandemic…” [System Logistics]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
INDUSTRY SECTOR DEMAND FOR MOBILE ROBOTS “The automotive industry is pretty mature and some of
the more traditional manufacturing industries are also
Industry / Sector Demand
pretty mature… but, there is certainly still growth there.
Aerospace ↓ They tend to go to more and more challenging type
applications. Where you see the factor growth or the
Automotive ↘
really nonlinear growth is more in the warehousing and
Food & Beverage ↑ distribution space. I'd say that the general warehousing
General Manufacturing ↗ market is now really bigger than the manufacturing
market. Food & beverage is also a very active market, fast
Logistics & 3PL ↗ moving consumer goods… there are very large
Parcel & Couriers ↑ deployments in these industries.” [JBT]
E-COMMERCE RELATED BUSINESS BOOM
Pharmaceutical & Cosmetics ↗ • The e-Commerce sector is increasingly using AGV & AMR
Renewables & Power Storage ↑ Robots (further complicating segmentation) and vendors
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis reported significant interest
“The e-commerce parcel side is exploding at the moment.
The other aspect is in the automotive sector. The labour
“I would say food business, especially fresh food, has kept
shortage is almost chronic… labour shortages across the
it up, so to say. Because everybody needed it anyway.
board is driving a lot of automation initiatives.” [K
Vegetables instead of sending them to restaurants and so
Hartwall]
they were sent to supermarkets instead. So at the end of
“We also sell our AMRs to e-commerce companies. Not for
the day, these guys haven't suffered that much and these
picking and storage, but for transporting the cardboard
projects went through like usual and other ones took
boxes to the packaging stations. Then the second process
more time.” [Alstef Group]
is to transport the waste out of these areas to a central
“We just work in the high volume consumer goods
hub and then the third point is if they do not have a
focusing on the food, beverage, and tissue industries.
conveyor system installed in their facility to transport
Every time a company needs to produce a pallet with
vendor parcels to destinated areas…” [idealworks]
goods, wrap it, store it and ship it. That’s where we work.
“Corona had a huge effect on e-commerce and parcel
So we don’t work in retail, e-commerce, automotive,
handling warehouses got busier. We also saw an increase
aerospace, or other industries. I think that being so
in other autonomous driving systems.” [Maxon]
focused on high-volume consumer goods is the key to our
• This has also extended to 3PLs that were increasingly
success. You can’t be good at everything, and we want to
going through their estates to examine potential
be the best in what we do.” [E80 Group]
efficiency savings 25

AUTOMOTIVE REMAINED A KEY TARGET CUSTOMER DESPITE SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES. COVID
CATALYST FOR NEW APPLICATIONS. RENEWABLES & BATTERY SECTOR GROWING
“I think some 3PLs are looking at some of their older
warehouses. Most of the ones that we've been looking at
are kind of brownfield sites so some of these sites are kind
of a little bit older and outdated, and they're trying to see
how they can get some new efficiencies out of those.”
[Forward X]
AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR HIGHLY VOLATILE
• The automotive sector is the largest individual sector for
AGV & AMR vendors and projects are frequently in 100’s
of robots
• Despite the problems in the automotive sector, it
remains a key target sector as they are often quick to get
the benefits of automation
“First of all, there's a huge opportunity in what we call
moving which I describe as intralogistics, so automating
material flows or internal material handling processes in
manufacturing environments. There's a lot of hype also
about it, but I clearly sense when talking to customers
that they are keen on this. We get a lot of enquiries,
particularly from the automotive industry...” [Geek+]
“With automotive customers it’s always easier to discuss
automation because they are using this and robotics in
their own production lines. So for them, it's easier to
understand and to see the benefits. Whereas with the
pharma customer it’s a bit more difficult because… well
they do have automation in their production, but that's
completely different when compared to logistics.”
[Anonymous 3PL]
• The wide use of automation in the automotive sector
appeals to many vendors
“Generally speaking, automotive customers know what
they want from AMRs. But right now we have a very large
company that really doesn’t have any experience of AMRs
and they asked us to help them gain experience. So we're
setting up a POC with them in a way that will show them
what our technology can do for them and at the same
time try to do it in such a way that it spurs some more
thinking… so where can this really be applied in their
production plants, etc. But we also have customers that
come to us with a 120 page RFQ and say this is what we
would like and we think AMRs can be very useful in this
way but If you disagree, give us your thoughts. Here it's
more about designing a solution based on the guidelines
that come in the RFQ and finding out how many robots we
need, etc. So in between those extremes, I think you find
the companies we are targeting.” [Geek+]
“The highest level of automation and automation
readiness is in automotive and electronics. They are used
to work with automation and they also have the
information teams… both the manufacturer and their
suppliers. And then you have the whole logistic segment,
mainly 3PL warehouse & distribution that have other
needs in terms of labour shortages, forklift safety, etc.
And you have FMCG which also to a large extent is
logistics. But those two segments are less used to
deploying mobile robots.” [MIR]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
PHARMACEUTICALS, INCREASED INTEREST
• 3PLs highlighted that pharmaceuticals offered an
interesting application for automation whilst automotive
customers were easier to talk to with automation
“Pharma is also an operation where we're looking more
and more into these kind of solutions. There it also works.
I don't think there is a specific business where it's more
relevant.” [Anonymous 3PL]
NEW APPLICATIONS
• Whilst Covid appeared to have driven interest in existing
sectors, there were also growing interest from new
types of customers
“Because of Covid, perhaps it has become a bit easier to
sell robots into public environments, like schools and
hospitals. Even in restaurants, supermarkets and this kind
of places…” [Omron]
• Interviews also indicated that the wider renewables
sector was a new-ish sector with significant growth and
where customers tended towards full automation
implementation from day one
“So new businesses and new industries are cropping up ...
and they are looking at their manufacturing and supply
chain operations in a different new way as opposed to
traditional businesses and go for full automation from day
one.” [The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz]
“Before 2021 our biggest project was in the electronics
sector and this year we have made some projects in the
photovoltaic industry… solar energy… those kind of
manufacturers. This year we also did some work in the
automotive sector.” [Standard Robots]
26

SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES APPEARED TO RANDOMLY AFFECT COMPONENT AVAILABILITY,
PRICES, SHIPPING TIMES, ETC. ACROSS VENDORS AND CUSTOMERS
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION IMPACT RANDOM
• Interviews suggested that impacts from supply chain
disruptions caused by pandemic lockdowns may have
random effects that may continue to ripple throughout
the value chain in the short term
• For example, a single missing component in a customer’s
production line could be a potential showstopper for an
AGV & AMR project
“During the Covid, the automotive industry was just
keeping very low stock levels to anticipate for a short
working period or a possible shutdown threat, however
the sales of cars have been developed in the opposite
direction but for most of them this situation was most
likely unexpected. Let’s say, the market changed quickly
from reactive to proactive purchasing.” [SICK]
“What's happened in the last 12 months with
automotive… we've got a number of automotive projects
on hold. I know one customer has got a few thousand cars
on backlog because of microchips that have not arrived.”
[Anonymous Vendor]
COMPONENT SUPPLY ISSUES
• Interviews indicated that lead times and/or price
increases were part of the current market
• However, the main impact was the often random non-
availability of some components
“Yes, lead times for hardware have got longer. That is
something that we see… and it's not a general trend, it's
one part here or there, but you need every part… so it's
not a general non availability, but it's the non availability
of some specific things that you definitely need typically.”
[incubedIT]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION IMPACTS “It's getting more expensive. Some components have
doubled or tripled in price. Component suppliers say you
Real World Impact
•
have to pay a double price and the delivery time is also
Increased component prices • Increased raw material prices
• Longer shipping times • Longer lead times double. We try to control price increases by buying more
• Access to key components • Access to key components components up front.” [Lowpad]
“Everybody is talking about supply chain limitations on
electronical components, semiconductor and other critical
parts. Shipment deliveries are delayed or limited which
AGV & AMR VENDOR CUSTOMER lead to scarcity and indeed prices increases… We are in
close contact with all our suppliers to ensure overall
demands. Right now we have a good visibility, but nobody
can predict how the situation will develop over the next
Potential Consequences
few months.” [SICK]
• Longer lead times • Production limitations
• Project delays • Freezing or postponing • Most AGV & AMR vendors were working extra hard to
• Increased demand due to automation projects secure components for their vehicles
“hoarding” by clients • Increasing orders to account for “There are a lot of parts in our AMRs which use micro
• Potential price increases potential future disruption controllers and we are putting a lot of effort to get these
components. It's not always easy but this is the current
situation for everyone in automotive or in industry in
“But you know industry computers we have to plan even
general. Some prices have increased and lead times have
one year in advance. Already before Covid we had to do
increased. But we are managing this.” [idealworks]
that and now we are doing the same, but then you get a
• Many vendors reported that they had ordered extra
call for us saying, oh, there is a missing capacitor
component quantities and placed forward orders to
somewhere and there's 12 weeks to find them.”
ensure they could continue producing vehicles
[BlueBotics]
“So we are at the moment being challenged by
“Supply chain issues, including component availability,
component lead times getting longer… batteries,
and logistics have impacted hardware delivery, either
electronics. We try to manage this as best we can and try
limiting the capacity with a longer lead time or with cost
to buy in advance for key components.” [K Hartwall]
increases.” [Geek+]
• For certain components, prices have increased in parallel
with longer lead times
27

SOME EVIDENCE THAT SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES CONTRIBUTED TO A MARKET GROWTH CAP
IN 2021. CUSTOMERS MAY ALSO HAVE ACCELERATED THEIR PROCUREMENT PLANS
“For the time being we did not have any huge delays. But,
also because we decided to buy some stock last year when
we saw this coming. So we ordered extra stock of
electronic products such as PLCs and stuff like that. And
now, actually we are more affected by pricing than delays
on the AGV side.” [Alstef Group]
“We ordered a little bit more in order to have buffer, but I
think this is quite a general norm. Everybody is behaving
like this and that’s why we have this situation.”
[Anonymous Vendor]
• A delayed component downstream in the value chain
could impact component suppliers
“We did not experience any significant slowdown during
the pandemic, and still have growing quantities. But
compared to the plan... some of our customers had very
ambitious plans for 2021, but because of supply chain
constraints, some of their customer’s projects were
delayed… maybe because one component had an
extended delivery time within their application and, of
course, the end result is that we have to wait as well.”
[Mobotic]
MARKET GROWTH LIMITED BY SUPPLY ISSUES
• Significant increases in order intake in combination with
component shortages had a limiting effect on production
output
“…but we’re not going to be able to produce everything
this year due to component delays. We are trying to
produce and ship as much as we can by the end of the
year. But we have a few projects that will move into next
year for sure.” [Anonymous Vendor]
• It should be noted that supply chain disruption issues
and related shortfall in production was not limited to the
AGV & AMR Robotics sector
ILLUSTRATIVE DELAYED PRODUCTION IN 2021
STIQ estimated 5-10% of
2021 production had to be
postponed to 2022
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis
“Revenues were hampered by supply chain constraints
delaying customer deliveries. This was primarily related to
semiconductors and imbalances in the overall supply
chain...” [ABB, 3Q21 report]
“The bottlenecks in global supply chains again resulted in
delays to the production of new trucks in the third
quarter. Moreover, profitability is increasingly being
squeezed by the sharp rise in commodity prices.” [KION,
3Q21 report]
• And, increased commodity prices also had an effect on
customer behaviour, especially where projects were not
critical
“First, we are struggling with the increase in raw material
and the delays. So especially in the logistic business, racks
are just metal. And as you know, the indicators have
increased by 2-2.5 of origin… this racking in our stacker
crane is something like 40-50% of the cost of the global
project, and so this affects all projects by an average 15%
which is sometimes, or most of the time, delaying them or
even cancelling them…” [Alstef group]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
• However, some vendors also reported that their
production schedules had not been significantly affected
“We've been making these robots for a while now, so we
have alternate suppliers for things… some robustness in
our own supply chain. So we're not fully protected and I
don't want to give the impression that we are kind of
completely insulated from the global supply chain issues.
But you know our lead times... Our standard lead times
have not changed dramatically.” [Seegrid]
“Availability of electronics and sensors is a bottleneck we
are facing at the moment ... Lead times on electronics is
affecting us a bit.” [The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz]
“We’ve seen the challenges of course like everyone else
today. Luckily we haven't been hit too bad yet. But let's
hope that it's not getting any worse. But of course the
situation is not great at the moment.” [Logisnext]
EFFECT ON END CUSTOMER BUYING?
• Some vendor interviews hinted that some customers
may have accelerated procurement of scheduled robot
purchases to ensure timely delivery
“Customers have also reacted to the supply challenges.
And it seems that they have also figured out that it's
difficult to get material, so they pick a little bit of stock…
so maybe they are placing a little bit more orders thanks
to that…” [Anonymous Vendor]
“… in the current environment of a strained supply chain it
is only fair to assume it includes a certain element of
customers putting through safety-orders to secure future
deliveries.” [ABB, 3Q21 report]
28

THE PANDEMIC CONTINUES TO IMPACT TRAVEL AND GROWTH PLANS. FURTHER LOCAL
DISRUPTION TO BE EXPECTED IN THE SHORT TERM
CONTAINER SHIPPING
• Not only has container shipping prices increased >3X,
but booking times have also significantly expanded and
when containers reach ports they sometimes have to
queue for weeks to be unloaded
• However, depending on projects and time scales, this
may be less of an issue
“We are starting to see a few delays, mainly for electronic
components and some issues in shipping times. We do a
lot of business in North America, and it is getting harder to
find space inboard to ship containers overseas. And once
they arrive, they sometimes get stuck in a queue, just
waiting to be unloaded. However, this is not causing
problems for us and our customers because making and
shipping AGVs is not a bottleneck for us. Since we sell
large systems, usually developing and testing the software
define the lead-time of our solutions. There are no
significant delays at the moment.” [E80 Group]
• Vendors that have focused on the domestic market were
less affected by container shipping problems and to
some extent also component issues
“At the moment you know the bulk of our revenue comes
domestically, so shipping times have not affected us
hugely. But one thing it has done… actually it's affecting
our ability to create partnerships. But we’re renewing our
international efforts in 2022 and I would imagine that our
overseas models that need to have more of the foreign
components may be a bit slower than production for the
domestic market.” [ForwardX]
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS IMPACT
• Many countries eased their travel restrictions in 2021,
but there were local closures and the potential for
further lockdowns in individual countries
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“The pandemic has certainly created restrictions, but OTHER FREE ROBOTICS MARKET REPORTS
these restrictions have not affected us because the local
interest is also very high. Online meetings took off and
have been very good for managing our time efficiently,
but since we offer a solution and not just an AMR,
customer visits are essential for us.” [Lowpad]
• Such travel restrictions also affected the ability to
expand into certain territories
“There are some continued issues because of Covid. And
that may slow down the situation directly or indirectly.
Directly because some customers are delayed, they cannot
go to their customers sometimes, and indirectly because
of the supply chain. Some delayed investments, but that's
not so much the reason as more supply chain and access • STIQ offers a wide range of freely available reports
to customers, real physical access. China, for instance, we • Each report is based on rigorous research methodology
can still not go there.” [BlueBotics] gained from our extensive M&A research experience
TRADE SHOWS • Current coverage includes e-Grocery Infrastructure
(Micro Fulfilment Centres, Last Mile Grocery Delivery,
• Easing restrictions also meant opening up of the trade
etc), G2P (e-Commerce fulfilment automation
show and conference schedules and some startups that
equipment), AGV & AMR Robotics (pallet movements,
had planned to show for the first time at cancelled
intralogistics, bespoke payloads), and Farm Robots
events were hopeful to exhibit at shows in the end of
(automation targeting agriculture & farm applications)
2021 and in 2022
• Download from our website www.styleintelligence.com
“Covid meant that potential customers were super
passive. Things have changed and everything is fine now. FOR BUYERS OF AUTOMATION
Another aspect is that trade shows have re-started. Our • STIQ also offers a free debrief to buyers of equipment of
company was founded in Nov 2020 and we haven't had all our reports
the chance to showcase our company to potential • This can be useful to get insights on which vendors offer
customers because every trade show was cancelled. It's certain products, what the trends are, particular use
been tricky for everyone who planned to release new cases, etc.
products…” [idealworks] • Contact us to arrange this to suit your format
MARKET SIZE DATA
• Market size data is also available ($) for all the sectors
we cover in our free reports 29
CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS
SEGMENTATION 4
TECHNOLOGY 5
BUSINESS MODELS 11
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
INTERVIEW WITH USER OF AGVs & AMRs 18
Free distribution of this report was enabled by: JOURNEY DETAILS 19
GROWTH
AGV & AMR MARKET 23
GROWTH BY INDUSTRY SECTOR 25
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION 27
AGV & AMR DEMOGRAPHICS
VENDOR GROWTH 31
ACCESS TO TALENT 35
FUNDING AND M&A
SECTOR FUNDING 39
NOTABLE M&A TRANSACTIONS 41
COMPANY PROFILES 44
CREDITS, INTERVIEWEES & SPONSOR 57
MARKET SIZE DATA Contact us

30

STIQ IDENTIFIED 33% MORE COMPANIES IN THE AGV & AMR SECTOR VS 2020. EUROPE
DOMINATED BY VENDOR VOLUME
NUMBER OF AGV & AMR VENDORS BY CONTINENT
296 303
308
286
267
245
227
205 212
185
194
176
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis. Company foundation year
Note: recent growth decline is most likely due to companies not
emerging until they are 2-3 years old
INCREASING NUMBER OF VENDORS ACTIVE
• STIQ identified 308 vendors of AGV & AMR Robotics
globally, an increase of c.33% compared to 231 in STIQs
2020 AGV & AMR Robotics report (download here)
• This is thought to represent c.66% of all current vendors
with remaining companies likely to include stealth
startups, smaller local vendors, machine makers with a
small mobile robot division or an early stage division
• The increased vendor volume is partly due to increased
visibility of STIQs reports (companies reaching out) and
that more companies buy in AGV & AMR software
converting them into a vendor well within a year in some
cases
VOLUME GROWTH AT 5.2% CAGR 2010-2021
%CAGR • Note that this analysis is based on company foundation
2010-2021
year and not necessarily when a particular company
Total 5.2% added AGV & AMR Robots to their product ranges
SA 6.5%
• Overall, the volume of companies offering AGV & AMR
Robots increased at 5.2% CAGR 2010-2021
AS 7.9%
• The continent with the largest increase was Asia with
7.9% CAGR, followed by South America at 6.5%, North
NA 5.3% America 5.3% and Europe at 3.9%
DRIVERS OF VENDOR GROWTH
• One of the primary growth drivers (for vendor volume)
EU 3.9%
has been the availability of off-the-shelf technology,
allowing anyone with a reasonable level of technology
knowledge to develop a basic (low payload) AGV
• Continued developments of ROS have also led to an
increase in SLAM type navigation software vendors and
AGV start-ups
• ROS (open source, link) was being promoted by a
number of industry heavyweights including Amazon,
Qualcomm, Nvidia and others. Amazon released its
Robomaker simulation tool in 2018, based on ROS (link)
• Whilst ROS may not [yet] be ready for critical and high
payload applications, a number of vendors in this report
have developed additional enterprise functionality, using
ROS as a framework
• Furthermore, Nvidia are investing heavily in developing
ROS
• For more advanced vehicles, there were numerous
Navigation Software vendors that enable electric vehicle
OEMs to convert their forklifts and trucks into AGVs, or
that converted vehicles to AGVs
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
VENDORS HQ CONTINENT AS A SHARE OF VOLUME
SA (South America)
1.9%
AS (Asia) 30.8%
54.5% EU (Europe)
12.7%
NA (North America)
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis
THE MAJORITY OF COMPANIES IN EUROPE
• European vendors represented 54.5% of all vendors
identified for this report (55% in 2020)
• North American companies represented 12.7% (13%),
Asian 30.8% (30%) and South American 1.9% (2%)
• STIQs view on the high proportion of companies in
Europe is:
• The EUR “open” pallet is easier to pick up and
transport when compared to “closed” pallets used in
many places outside Europe
• The AGV was originally invented in Europe
• The European automotive industry were very early
adopters of AGV technology
• Some level of national champions
31

NEW AGV & AMR VENDORS DRIVEN BY DIVERSIFICATION, SPIN-OFFS AND/OR STARTUPS
MORE VENDORS
• There are an increasing number of vendors in the AGV &
AMR Robotic sector
• Reasons for companies to enter the sector include
diversification of existing ranges or customers and as
startups or spin-offs
• Diversification is often driven by an existing product
range that can be sold to new customers with a few
changes or equipment that can be enhanced by robots
• Spin-outs are typically based on existing projects that
may not get full attention as part of a company or a
university, etc.
• And, there is also the Startup route where founders have
seen an opportunity to add a new product in a sector
CUSTOMER & PRODUCT DIVERSIFICATION
• A few vendors have experienced success in adjacent
sectors and may expand into the AGV & AMR Robotics
sector based on similar technologies
“I would say that historically we come from the G2P side
of the business, the logistics side. We are number one in
the world for that… despite intensive competition in
China. But we are definitely doing better than any of our
competitors in going global. And then you have the other
side, the manufacturing sort of segment if you split it to
those two. And I would say that in manufacturing we are
now ready to enter as a serious player. We're just now
launching forklifts in Europe, and recently gained the ISO
3691-4 safety certification standard that is necessary in
Europe. So what we are in the process of doing is finding
small projects that are not complex that we can test the
forklift AMRs in Europe.” [Geek+]
STRATEGIC REASONS FOR ENTERING AGV & AMR
Startup Existing Business
Customer
Spin-off
(Corporate,
Customer
Diversification
University, etc. )
Product
Startup Product Range
(New Product) Diversification
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis
• Other vendors may already supply a range of products
used in the wider material handling sector and want to
add robots to enhance the existing product range
“So we have been an integrator for 11 years and have
dabbled with sales for other vendors… So about a year ago
we said we’re going to make the bot in-house and we got
the team in place. We manufactured our first bot and are
now going out in the market.” [NIDO]
“The reason we entered the AMR sector is that we are one
of the biggest manual handling equipment companies that
produce roll containers, foldable cages, etc. We have
customers in 60 countries using our equipment and this is
a way for us to bring automation to move that equipment.
These AMRs are a really good fit for many of our current
customers because they are also looking for ways to move
roll containers, pallets or foldable cases effectively in their
operations. This was a strategic way to also help our
customers with these aspects of their intralogistics.” [K
Hartwall]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
• Whilst others are simply responding to customer
demand
“Some of our customers were asking for AGVs because
they've seen that in other industries and they were having
issues with intralogistics… safety was a key issue. We
started to explore this in 2016… looking at all the
navigation providers. Our sector is very special since we
have to deal with huge magnetic fields in the aluminium
smelters. This is a huge challenge for any electronic
components. So, we have done quite rigorous
experimentation for carrying crucibles with liquid metal.”
[Epiq Machinery]
THE SPIN OFF
• Universities and research institutes also offer a ready-
made spin off route, especially where there has been a
collaboration with corporate partners
• These kind of spin-offs tended to be software companies
rather than hardware related businesses
“We're a spinoff company of the university of Pisa in Italy.
We started in December 2017. So the problem is actually
providing robot producers with a navigation software
stack. And we decided to do this let’s say, by leveraging
our expertise that we gained during our research period at
the university.” [Proxima Robotics]
“We are a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology, ETH Zurich. It is one of the world leading
universities in the field of robotics.” [Sevensense
Robotics]
32

THE GERMAN AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR APPEARED TO BE ESPECIALLY ACTIVE
GERMAN AUTOMOBILE SECTOR IN CENTRE
• A number of German automotive manufacturers and
component suppliers are active in the AGV & AMR
Robotics sector, either directly (internal divisions) or
indirectly (spin-offs)
• BMW and Continental are two companies that have
developed AMRs internally and have established
business units or divisions to offer AMRs externally
• Arculus and SYNAOS are two examples of independent
companies where the founding team were involved in
intralogistics planning and/or robots at Audi and VW
“Me and my co-founders were working in an innovation
lab at VW and we build up a prototype for a vendor
independent fleet management system. At one point in
time we decided that this topic has a huge potential
because we were involved in the search from VW for
vendors who can offer this kind of solution. I think we
talked to c.30 different companies but no one was able to
meet the requirements the automotive industry had then.
And that was more or less the point when we said OK, we
need to build this product, but as an independent
business.” [SYNAOS]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“Within Continental Automotive various areas contributed
to the development of AMRs. I am part of the hydraulic
brake systems business unit. We were searching for AMR's
on the market around three years ago. We did not really
find any AMRs that were suitable for our requirements
and it was decided that we build our own robots. We have
all the resources internally in our business unit,
mechanical engineering, testing capabilities, etc…. really
strong development competencies. So we designed our
own AMR. This is exactly the one that you can see now on
our homepage. In 2019 we installed the first system in our
pilot plant and our plan is now that we will sell our first
AMRs to external customers in 2022” [Continental]
INTERNAL USE WHEN POSSIBLE
• Companies that have developed AMRs internally, also
give these first preference in procurement
“If a Continental plant wants to use ours but it does not fit
it will buy it somewhere else. It's just a strong
recommendation and a strategy from us to install as a first
option. If they do not fit then certainly they can purchase
the right solution from other vendors.” [Continental]
• Whilst internally developed AMRs will not solve all
applications, they will reduce the available market for
specialists
33

EXPLOSIVE GROWTH IN THE WIDER WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION SECTOR HAS LED TO A
LACK OF AVAILABLE TALENT
LACK OF AVAILABLE TALENT
• Interviews suggested that there is a lack of available
talent for vendors as well as customers
• Part of the problem is that e-Commerce companies
experienced rocketing growth during the pandemic and
have invested in warehouse automation equipment
• Companies, such as Amazon have also increased hiring to
keep up with accelerated expansion of their robotics
fleets
DISRUPTING GROWTH POTENTIAL
• For end-users, the lack of labour has meant that they
may not deploy as many robots as they want to
“I think one of the problems the pandemic has raised is
not the team members on the production floor, but really
how do we get the talent that can handle the robots. And
as much as we wanted to go faster with automation
during the pandemic, it's actually slowed down our
implementation of automation because we can't find the
right skill sets to help implement and then sustain the
automation, so that's been a real problem for us. The
market is just crazy for anybody with AMR knowledge and
they get sucked up right away out of the market. I think
traditional manufacturing companies are having a hard
time competing with the e-commerce companies. We
don't want to call an engineer every time we want to re-
route. We want to be able to go in there and do it
ourselves.” [Anonymous AGV & AMR User]
• Following relaxed restrictions, the wider labour pool has
also shrunk, potentially increasing the demand for
automation
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“The shipping side of our business is very busy at the • Some European countries host many growing companies
moment and contract logistics, and that's supporting us a that may add further challenges to attracting talent
lot. For contract logistics… on the other hand now every “Especially in the region where we are in Austria, that's a
country is starting to open up again, so stores are getting bit of a problem. On the other hand, we have the local
open, restaurants are getting open again so we are back in universities nearby.” [incubedIT]
the challenge of finding people again, so that’s one luxury
we had during Covid, that everybody could not find any
other jobs so they started working in logistics and now
again hey they can work back in the restaurant…”
[Anonymous 3PL]
• Increased hiring across the wider warehouse automation
sector may also be affecting vendors and their ability to
service customers
“But the robot companies are also growing fast and they
may lose some people… Now their customer base is
doubling or going up 30-40-50% and so now we're having
to book a time. So we'll say ‘we want to launch this and
we need some support’ and they’ll come back and say
‘we're available in two months time’ and we're like, no
no, we want to do it this week. So there's a struggle, I
think, with resources everywhere. I don't know if that's
been talked enough about in the industry, but we're really
getting resource constrained to go any quicker.”
[Anonymous AGV & AMR User]
THE VENDOR VIEW
• Conversations with vendors highlighted the problem
with staffing, especially in software
“As a company we have grown quite a bit, we hired many
people during last year and now as well. I think the big
difference comparing last year with this year is that the
market for talented engineers is really hot so it's much
harder to get qualified people now compared to last
year.” [Kollmorgen] 34
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
VENDORS ADDED ON AVERAGE 9.3% MORE STAFF IN 2021

FTE GROWTH 2021 VS 2020 NUMBER OF COMPANIES BY FTE VOLUME BRACKET FTE GROWTH 2021 VS 2020
% Change
SA 25.0% >250 9.5%

Employees
2020-2021
Continent

AS 22.9% 101-250 9.7%

40 43 >250 7.5%
NA 5.9% 10-100 4.2%
24 27 101-250 12.5%
EU 9.3% 1 to 9 -10.4%
Age of Company

Form Factor +
>10 9.1% Forklift 10.4%

Software
(years)

5 to 10 24.8% 117 116 10-100 -0.9% Tugger 13.1%

3 to 5 15.6% Mouse 24.4%
0 to 3 36.1% Software 16.6%
41 35 1-9 -15.6%
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis, LinkedIn 2020 2021 Source: STIQ Research & Analysis, LinkedIn
Note: Comparatives only for companies that were tracked in 2020. Does Note: Comparatives only for companies that were tracked in 2020. Does
not include all companies as some may focus on custom builds, etc. Source: STIQ Research & Analysis, LinkedIn. Note only includes companies not include all companies as some may focus on custom builds, etc.
Furthermore, some companies cover all three form factors. with comparatives. Excl. new companies identified in 2021 Furthermore, some companies cover all three form factors.

A GROWTH SECTOR
• Between 2020 and 2021, the total number of people
employed in the wider AGV & AMR Robotics sector grew
by an average of 9.3%
• This growth should be contextualised against the
backdrop of the pandemic
• When STIQ prepared the 2020 report many European
countries were bracing themselves for a second wave
and many companies had frozen further hiring and a few
made redundancies
EUROPE VS NORTH AMERICA
• Despite accounting for the bulk of publicly known funds
raised in the sector, North American companies only
grew FTEs by 5.9% compared to European peers at 9.3%
Note: The analysis on this page is based on public information from LinkedIn and other sources. This may skew the analysis as Far Eastern countries use LinkedIn far less than Western peers.
• STIQ attributed the lower FTE growth partly to well
publicized and continued Covid uncertainty in the US
and closed borders for international travel up to Oct
2021
• The higher growth in Asia and South America was mainly
credited to the younger age of many of these vendors
COMPANIES GROWING LARGER
• Of the vendors tracked through 2020 and 2021, there
were six fewer companies in the 1-9 FTE bracket in 2021
• The key reason for this was that the six companies grew
and moved into the next larger segment in 10-100 FTEs
• The same process occurred in all other segments, with 3
companies moving from 101-250 to >250 FTEs
THAWING PANDEMIC IMPACT: TALENT CHASE
• STIQ interviews in 2020 suggested that projects frozen
during lockdowns had slowly started returning in the end
of 2020
• Interviews for this year’s version indicated that many
companies were ahead of plans and now were
experiencing the issue of finding and hiring talent
• STIQ has already noticed that a lot of people across the
wider material handling sector have joined new
employers and the top priority for 2022 may simply be
to hold on to key talent
35

INCREASED PARTNERSHIP ACTIVITY IN THE AGV & AMR SECTOR MAY ALLEVIATE LACK OF
TALENT
THE PARTNERING TREND CONTINUES
• Partnering can be one way of easing the pain of having
to employ more people in a tight employment market
• A few vendors had experienced significant traction with
the partnership model in the G2P sector and were
planning to use the same strategy in the AGV & AMR
sector targeting industrial customers
“The kind of projects and the way you are using the robots
in manufacturing will be different from a G2P solution.
And there it really helps to work with integration partners
that have strong customer relationships and the big deep
knowledge of their verticals. So we work with companies
that have basically built factories.” [Geek+]
• STIQs impression for this report in 2021 was an
increased focus among vendors to partner with
distributors/resellers compared to 2020
“We are expanding and appointing integrators. Yesterday I
talked with an integrator in France who wants to promote
us to sell the products. We have already signed contracts
in India and Germany among others.” [Karter]
Due to Covid circumstances and enough opportunities in
Europe, we don’t expect to enter the US market before
2023.” [Lowpad]
“Sales and distribution is our focus for the next weeks,
months, years. We have a good investor on board now
and we are taking the next step. We have had this
strategy to follow the customers, so when BMW said they
need a vehicle in Shanghai, we looked for a way to do
that. That was a very passive way and now we are getting
active and we have the US office since around about two
years. And we are setting up new offices in Asia and
maybe another one in the US to have a broader access to
the market.” [Agilox]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
“About the overseas markets, like we have some agents, PARTNERING & THE CUSTOMER VIEW
like national agents in different areas. We already have • Customers want a streamlined support function,
agents in Japan, in southeast Asia countries and in whether this be with partners or directly
America. We are also developing agents in Singapore. “In the end, we do want to make sure that there’s a single
And, we are also planning to set up offices in Europe and point to connect to if there's anything that goes wrong.
Japan.” [Standard Robots] And then it's easier if the supplier also has an in-house
• Autonomous forklift vendors have traditionally been support function. Because if it is external, that means that
reluctant to go directly to system integrators, but have there's always a second step, and if there’s a failure it will
started exploring and appointing channel partners probably take longer before it's fixed. But this is not a deal
“We're exploring a lot more channel relationships with breaker for us. So if a company says, ‘ok we can do the
systems integrators” [Seegrid] implementation, we have software, but service and
“We recently signed our first reseller deal with Alta maintenance will be done by a local provider. You can call
Material Handling. Historically, we've done all direct us and we will connect to the local dealer’. For Me, that's
selling. We're going to be expanding our go to market fine.” [Anonymous 3PL]
reach into the dealer network...” [Vecna Robotics]
“We started with resellers last year, but… Covid
happened. We started discussing with many potential
integrators…honestly, in the 2020 Covid year… Now that
Covid is done… maybe you've seen that we signed an
agreement for example with Koerber Supply Chain?”
[Balyo]
• Some vendors original business model is to sell the
vehicles and rely on customers to do the integration,
deployment, etc.
“We supply the AMRs and usually rely on system
integrators to do the integration and customization for
the final application.” [Omron]
36

QUICKLY IMPROVING USER INTERFACES WILL HELP CUSTOMERS TO MANAGE ROBOT
FLEETS EASIER
• The direct vendor contact was considered important to
establish a deeper confidence that the systems would
work as sold
“We have avoided system integrators for mobile robots.
We feel we lose a connection to the robot manufacturer…
I think maybe the fixed robots space like Fanuc and ABB
integrators have been established for 40-50 years. I think
in the AMR space this is just really starting to get past that
stage where they’re not just new anymore… They're
starting to gain a normality now. Maybe in the next year
or two we may start looking at integrators again… if that's
the model they want to go to. We've tried to do some
things through integrators before, but the other problem
is again… back to the technical expertise, so the
integrators often don't have it because they have focused
on fixed robots.” [Anonymous AGV & AMR User]
CUSTOMERS WANTS TO MANAGE FLEETS
• Some vendors have identified the pain points many end-
customers face when managing robots internally or
when they need/want to make minor changes
“You're actually hitting a very large pain for the customer,
managing the system on their own. So how do we deal
with it at Geek? The feedback we have at the moment is
that our customers are very happy with our Geek Moving
System software. But we are not leaning back in our chair
and are satisfied with this. We want to be the best and
continue to improve our user friendliness and training
materials, etc. As you know, there is always a challenge in
transferring such knowledge internationally, but we have
hired a strong management team who know industry and
what we need to do to reach the top.” [Geek+]
“We see increased expectations especially when it comes
to ease of installation and configuration, making changes
and things like that. Those demands and needs are much
higher than just few years ago. This also goes together
with the change management process when you are
installing AGVs. That can be a bottleneck to even higher
growth than we're experiencing… So we're investing in
the user experience and in AI to really simplify things and
make it faster and better.” [Kollmorgen]
“I shared a vision with my team two years ago and this is
really that no one at Balyo should do planning for robots
that have been deployed. I want the clients to be able to
do it themselves. Of course, the integration and initial
installation of the robot will always require an engineer
from Balyo, but the customer should be able to do the day
to day operation, do change route planning and so on…”
[Balyo]
“So in terms of deploying customer’s AMRs and make use
of them. Yes, and that's the thing that we try to tackle by
software in the end, by the usability of our software. So
we try to make it as easy as possible to set up and operate
a fleet of AMRs.” [incubedIT]
• Most vendors also offer customers a range of training
programmes
“If the client wants to actually make modifications to their
software or their routes, we will put them through EK
Academy. And take the reader from basic level all the way
through to expert where they can make changes to their
routes or modifications to where the AGV is going.” [EK
Robotics]
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
• Although relatively isolated, it appeared there were
some bad customer experiences in the market
“I was surprised by the number of operators I've spoken to
that have attempted autonomy before. It's just they've
been burned by it before. They have basically had AGV or
AMR companies coming in and saying they will solve the
problem for the customer and that they won't have to
have anyone in this portion of your warehouse anymore.
And then it may turn out they’re just paying for people to
be on pager duty all day instead…” [Third Wave]
MIDDLEWARE INTEGRATION LAYER
• As the AGV & AMR market is expanding, several new
types and categories of software have appeared on the
market
• Integration middleware is one such category and there
are a few companies offering this service
“Gartner created a new category called Multi Robot
Orchestration that they announced in the supply chain
execution technologies hype cycle this summer. Not just
with us. There are a couple other companies that are also
in it.” [SVT Robotics]
“We offer a middleware layer. That’s really the best
description of our product. We connect many different
vendors with business systems like ERP and WMS
solutions. Our business is early stage and we are now
doing our first project in China.” [Syncware]
37
CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS
SEGMENTATION 4
TECHNOLOGY 5
BUSINESS MODELS 11
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
INTERVIEW WITH USER OF AGVs & AMRs 18
Free distribution of this report was enabled by: JOURNEY DETAILS 19
GROWTH
AGV & AMR MARKET 23
GROWTH BY INDUSTRY SECTOR 25
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION 27
AGV & AMR DEMOGRAPHICS
VENDOR GROWTH 31
ACCESS TO TALENT 35
FUNDING AND M&A
SECTOR FUNDING 39
NOTABLE M&A TRANSACTIONS 41
COMPANY PROFILES 44
CREDITS, INTERVIEWEES & SPONSOR 57
MARKET SIZE DATA Contact us

38
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
INVESTMENTS IN THE AGV & AMR SECTORS CONTINUED TO INCREASE IN 2020, BUT
DECLINED IN 2021. FURTHER ROUNDS TO BE PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED THOUGH
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS FUNDING ($m) AGV & AMR ROBOTICS FUNDING ROUNDS (#’s) VENDOR HQ CONTINENT AS A SHARE OF FUNDS

466 22 EU (Europe)
EU NA AS SA EU NA AS SA 8.4%
18
17
AS (Asia)
311 37.9%
12
11
222 207
8 53.7%
120 6 6
5 NA (North America)
75 78 4 4
49 2
7 20 6 8
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis
Note: South American companies raised 0.0% of funds up to 2021

Note: 2021 funding to November. 2010 includes pre-2010 funding Note: 2021 funding to September. Excludes unknown $ rounds. 2010
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis, Crunchbase includes pre-2010 funding
Source: STIQ Research & Analysis, Crunchbase

SIGNIFICANT DECLINE IN INVESTMENTS
• Funding inflows experienced a decline in 2021
• Note that annual funding numbers published in this
report for the last year only cover to September month
• STIQs comparative funding value for 2020 was $317m
which indicated a decline of c.60% in 2021
• Interviews suggested a few vendors had raised additional
capital throughout 2020, but were holding back public
announcements to maximise PR
• Note that STIQ will be delighted to elaborate on our
view of why there has been a lack of investments in
2021 > contact us to arrange a chat
AGGREGATE $1.5BN INVESTMENTS
• The wider AGV & AMR Robotics sector had attracted
$1.5bn in publicly known funding to October 2021
• A proportion of this was directed to companies also
active in e-commerce fulfilment (download STIQs G2P
reports from here)
• Annual funding peaked at $466m in 2020 and whilst
interviews indicated further fundraising in 2021, these
rounds may not be announced until 2022
• The largest number of rounds (22) was also recorded in
2020
FUNDING BY CONTINENT
• Whilst European companies received 8.4% of all funding,
they accounted for nearly a third of all funding rounds
• On the other end of the scale, Asian companies
accounted for a quarter of all funding rounds but nearly
40% of all funds raised
• North America continue to dominate the value of funds
raised and excluding funding for companies that cross
over with G2P Solutions, North American vendors would
account for c.72% of all funding
• Asia overtook Europe in aggregate fundraising in the
AGV & AMR Robotics sector by 2016
• Chinese vendors accounted for >99% of all funds raised
in Asia 39
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
2021 M&A ACTIVITY PARTIALLY DRIVEN BY THE PANDEMIC. CORPORATE BUYERS SPENT
>$500M ON ACQUISITIONS IN 2021
SELECTED AGV & AMR ROBOTICS SECTOR TRANSACTIONS, 2013-2021 LACK OF SECONDARY BUYOUTS
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 • Plenty of listed/public companies have been active
• Oceaneering acquired Frog
acquirers in the AGV & AMR Robotics sector including
• Keensight acquired stake in ASTI
• KION Group IPO • Körber acquired Consoveyo • Teradyne acquired AutoGuide KION, ABB, Krones, Teradyne, Amazon, Jungheinrich,
• KION acquired Egemin • ASTI acquired InSystem Scott Automation, Zebra, etc.
• Omron acquired Adept • Amazon acquired Canvas Technology • The driver for these companies has largely been to
• Siti B&T IPO • Porsche acquired Serva TS diversify and solidify operations rather than a build-and-
• Krones Group acquired majority stake • Jungheinrich invested in Magazino
• Seegrid acquired Box Robotics
sell strategy
in System Logistics
• Balyo IPO • H14 acquired stake in E80 Group • Corporate buyers may also consider longer ROI
• FlexQube IPO • KION acquired stake in Quicktron compared to PE buyers and may also includes other
• Kudan IPO • Kudan acquired stake in Artisense strategic opportunities that include solution sales rather
• Matthews acquired Guidance Automation • Verizon acquired IncubedIT
• Locus acquired Waypoint than individual robot sales
• ST Engineering acquired Aethon
• Asseco Group acquired majority stake in CEIT • Zebra acquired Fetch Robotics • Whilst there has been a relatively high level of VC
• Altra acquired Kollmorgen • ABB acquired ASTI investments, there has been a distinct lack of secondary
• Muratec acquired AGVE Group • Jungheinrich acquired Arculus acquisitions in the sector
• Scott Automation acquired Transbotics • This may be due to a lack of clear exit routes as barriers
• Teradyne acquired MIR
to entry are relatively low and technological
• STÄUBLI acquired 70% of WFT
• SSI Schaefer acquired stake in DS Automotion differentiation between players can be somewhat limited
• K Hartwall acquired majority stake in A&A • Another factor may be high sector fragmentation
Source: STIQ Ltd research & analysis, Crunchbase.
Note: Mitsubishi (now Mitsubishi Logisnext) acquired Rocla in 2008. Amazon’s acquisitions of Kiva Systems in 2012 and Canvas Technology in 2019 are covered in STIQ’s LACK OF RECENT IPO’S
G2P Solutions reports alongside KION’s investment in Quicktron, etc. (download STIQs G2P report here for free).
• The most recent IPOs in the sector was in 2017 when
AGV & AMR SECTOR M&A ACTIVITY • Stake building: where the transaction may be about both Balyo (France) and FlexQube (Sweden) listed
• M&A activity in the AGV & AMR Robotics sector has access to technology, customers, insights, securing • As a side note, Amazon has at some point purchased
remained fairly static with five IPOs in the 5 years the supply chain, or majority stakes to partner and products from both these companies
between 2013 and 2018 and 18 acquisitions 2013-2021 gain control, may also be driven by bolt-on strategy • There are a few IPO prospects in the sector and these
• There have been three main types of acquisitions: • Distressed acquisitions: where a company runs out of appeared to have diversified into e-commerce fulfilment
• Bolt-ons: where a group like Kion acquires a company funding, remains unprofitable or experiences a large and/or F&B applications
to diversify into new geographies, technology, and/or revenue decline
applications, etc. • STIQs view is that the pandemic may have forced a few
“In 2018 we then acquired the majority of a German transactions
company called A+A. They already then had significant
AGV applications together with some customers in 40
Germany.” [K Hartwall]

THREE SIGNIFICANT ACQUISITIONS IN 2021
RECENT NOTABLE AGV & AMR TRANSACTIONS
+ • ABB is a more diversified enterprise and reported a less
July 1, 2021: $290m ($305m EV)
+
July 20, 2021: €190m
+ • Fetch has raised funds every 2 years since 2015 (2015,
November 10, 2021: €m?
CONSOLIDATION FINALLY HAPPENING?
• Interviews have suggested that consolidation needs to
happen in the sector, but STIQs view is that there will be
continued fragmentation of the market and vendors
• However, the pandemic has definitely added some
interesting dynamics to the sector and three public
companies, ABB, Zebra and Jungheinrich acquired in the
AGV & AMR Robotics sector in 2021
• STIQs view is that this was not part of a wider
consolidation in the sector and was mainly driven by
increased cash inflows and strategic considerations
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
• For example, Zebra and Jungheinrich experienced like SCREENSHOT FROM ABB IR PRESENTATION
for like sales lift of c.30% like for like revenue in 3Q21
dramatic increase of c.7% in the same period
• The management in these companies have to show they
are doing something with the additional cash inflows and
robotics have been an active space in 2020 and 2021
ZEBRA + FETCH (+ LOCUS + WAYPOINT)
• Zebra made 5 acquisitions between 2018-2020; Zebra
Ventures, the VC arm of Zebra, made significant
investments in both Fetch and Locus in 2019 and 2020
• In 2021, Zebra acquired Fetch for $290m (and Locus
acquired Waypoint) Source: Screenshot of ABBs IR Presentation re the ASTI acquisition
WHY FETCH?
$23m + 2017, $24m + 2019, $46m), and the most likely
scenario was that Fetch was fundraising again in 2021
WHY DID ABB ACQUIRE ASTI
• STIQs view of why ABB acquired ASTI can be explained
by their view that global sales of AMRs will increase to
• As an investor in Fetch’s Series C-round in 2019, Zebra $14bn by 2025 (see image)
would have had access to historical performance • ABBs definition of “AMR global sales” may be very wide
• STIQs analysis of Zebra’s 10-K reports 2016-2020 did not and could potentially include any mobile robot on the
market (note that STIQ also provide AGV & AMR market
feature a single mention of robots or Fetch; whilst this is
size data at a cost – contact us for more information and
not unusual, it may highlight that Zebra were perhaps
how we define and segment the various robots)
not actively targeting the sector with headline group
“We also have an active M&A strategy to expand our
M&A activities
portfolio and expertise.” [ABB, Annual Report 2020]
DID SOFTBANK PUSH FOR AN EXIT?
• SoftBank has been busy exiting a number of robotics • Apart from an active M&A strategy, interviews
suggested that ABB have made several attempts at
companies in the last 12-18 months and was an early
spinning up a mobile robots unit, but that these
investor in Fetch Robotics in 2015 (source)
initiatives typically got buried for various reasons
• STIQs view is that SoftBank may have pushed for an exit
(invested in Fetch >5yrs) rather than backing another
fundraise
41

THREE SIGNIFICANT ACQUISITIONS IN 2021 (CONT)
“ABB started AGV & AMRs several times as a business
unit. But, what happened is that they are so slow in
decision making and the unit simply fizzled out… I think 5-
8 years ago they could have acquired a few companies.
Today they have so much delay that they needed a
company with an already good distribution footprint. So
in this sense, I think the choice of ABB was correct. What I
also found interesting was that they rejected the trendy
companies like Fetch, Clearpath, 6 Rivers, etc. They did
not go for that. They went for a classic AGV supplier with
a lot of experience, which is interesting…” [Anonymous
Vendor]
• ASTI presented a ready-made option with a strong brand
and, more importantly, was available and will not
(hopefully) disappear in the larger organisation
• The motivation in ABBs Robotics & Discrete Automation
division was pretty clear as revenue had declined by
c.25% between 2018 and 2020
• An additional factor may have been ABBs belief that the
AMR market will increase to $14bn by 2025
• ABB acquired ASTI for €190m in July 2021 and ABBs
press releases and presentations re the transaction
highlighted two potential growth areas, Healthcare and
the Chinese market
ASTI SET ITSELF UP FOR A SALE IN 2018/19
• STIQs view is that ASTIs leadership may have decided to
exit in 2017/2018 and that VDA5050, announced in 2017
may have been one of the driving factors
• ASTI was founded in 1982 and experienced 53% CAGR
2014-2019 (source)
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
• In February 2019, Keensight Capital acquired a minority CONSOLIDATION STARTING?
stake in ASTI; in October ASTI acquired InSystems, a • The most recent acquisition in the AGV & AMR Robotics
German AGV vendor, growing the combined entity to sector was courtesy of Jungheinrich, who acquired
c.300 FTEs fellow German AMR vendor Arculus
• Furthermore, in 2020, ASTI launched a G2P solution and • Note that there were no details of the size of the deal
managed to convert at least one logo customer when this report was being published
ABB STATED AIMS “There are other companies in Europe that are for sale in a
• ABB viewed logistics as a key sector of growth in their similar position to ASTI. Yeah, I know that there are offers
2020 report and may have tracked the sector for around. Some companies obviously are more expensive
acquisitions than others in it, but there are some family businesses
“As a market and technology leader, our Robotics & around that may be selling...” [Anonymous Vendor]
Discrete Automation Business Area is strongly positioned
in heavily automated industries such as automotive, and
we are rapidly increasing our offering in key, high-growth
segments, including healthcare, logistics, retail and food &
beverage.” [ABB, Annual Report 2020]
JUNGHEINRICH + ARCULUS
• Jungheinrich is a German leading global manufacturer
and vendor of forklifts and tugger vehicles
• In Nov 2021, Jungheinrich announced they had acquired
arculus, a German vendor of AMRs
• This followed their investment in Magazino, another
German robotics company, in Sep 2020
• Jungheinrich is likely to report the transaction size in its
2021 full year update, some time in 2022 (after the
publication of this report)
WHY ARCULUS?
• STIQs view is that Jungheinrich is transforming itself into
a vendor of both manual and autonomous vehicles (and If you are interested in STIQs views on M&A in this sector,
hybrids) with full ownership of the underlying software please contact us for a debrief of this report
• In a similar way to ABB + ASTI, Jungheinrich opted for an
email: tom@styleintelligence.com
acquisition rather than to develop an internal function
42
from scratch
CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS
SEGMENTATION 4
TECHNOLOGY 5
BUSINESS MODELS 11
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
INTERVIEW WITH USER OF AGVs & AMRs 18
Free distribution of this report was enabled by: JOURNEY DETAILS 19
GROWTH
AGV & AMR MARKET 23
GROWTH BY INDUSTRY SECTOR 25
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION 27
AGV & AMR DEMOGRAPHICS
VENDOR GROWTH 31
ACCESS TO TALENT 35
FUNDING AND M&A
SECTOR FUNDING 39
NOTABLE M&A TRANSACTIONS 41
COMPANY PROFILES 44
CREDITS, INTERVIEWEES & SPONSOR 57
MARKET SIZE DATA Contact us

43
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
VENDORS: AGV & AMR ROBOTS | A-A
Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

HOW TO READ VENDOR PROFILES

Geek+ COMPANY NAME Addverb
COMPANY LOGO
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

CH | 2015 | n/a | 1,500 | US,UK,JP,HK,SG,DE UK | 2015 | est.$30m | 178 | EU IN | 2016 | n/a | 470 | SG
Geek+ is a global technology company leading the Other offices • Provides a range of form factors to support wider
HQ Founded Yr. Revenue # Linkedin Staff
intelligent logistics revolution. We apply advanced (latest known)
warehouse automation solutions. System integrator
robotics and AI technologies to realize flexible, Active website links with hardware engineering capacity. Co-founders
reliable, and highly efficient solutions for warehouses (Website, LinkedIn, from Asian Paints
and supply chain management. CrunchBase, YouTube, =Interviewed • Raised: None disclosed
WarehouseAutomation
We develop tailored solutions to a wide range of online directory) • Customers: None disclosed
industries, including e-commerce, apparel, retail,
logistics, 3PL, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing. AgileX Robotics Agilox
Geek+ has deployed more than 20,000 robots
worldwide. W in cb WA W in cb WA

Geek+ counts 300 global customers, including Disney, CN | 2016 | n/a | 16 | - AT | 2008 | n/a | 43 | US
Nike, Toyota, DHL, Skechers, Dell. • Provides a range of in- & outdoor robot chassis • Provides a range of autonomous forklifts
Case Studies listed here: without sensors (lidar, cameras, etc). ROS-based • Raised: None disclosed
https://blog.geekplus.com/case-studies navigation software stack included. One mouse AGV • Customers: DHL, Continental, Daimler, DB Schenker,
As the No.1 AMR leader, Geek+ has the on offer - the “Tracer” J&J, Hansgrohe, Festool, AGCO
knowledge and technical experience to optimize • Raised $0.5m (latest Angel $0.5m, 2016) from
your warehouse productivity. Contact Us: Legend Star, Xbotpark Capital
https://www.geekplus.com/contact • Customers: Alibaba, Huawei
AGVE AGVS Anronaut
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

SE | 1986 | n/a | 46 | UK,US,KR,IT,DE BR | 2013 | n/a | 21 |- CH | 2002 | n/a | 3 | -

• Produces a range of form factors. Acquired by
Muratec (JP) in 2018
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: GM, Volvo Cars, ABB, Dragsbaek
• Provides a range of form factors • Produces navigation & fleet manager kits for
• Raised: None disclosed retrofitting hardware. Specialises in autonomous
• Customers: Embraer, GM, Ford, Volkswagen, VNA forklifts
Renault, Toyota, JLR, FCA, Unilever, Saint Gobain, • Raised: None disclosed
Whirlpool • Customers: None disclosed

44
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
VENDORS: AGV & AMR ROBOTS | A-D
Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

Arculus ASTI Mobile Robots AutoGuide

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

DE | 2016 | n/a | 70 | - ES | 1982 | €36m | 234 | FR,DE,US US | 2018 | n/a | 60 | -

• Specific application mouse form factor using “Goods • Provides a range of form factors. Acquired by ABB in • Provides a tugger and forklift form factor. Released
to Person concept” for factory design. Acquired by 2021 high-bay forklift in 2020
Jungheinrich in 4Q21 • Keensight VC invested in 2019 (source). Acquired • Company spun out of corporate divisions in 2018
• Raised $21m (latest Series A raised €16m) from InSystems Automation (DE) in 2019 • Acquired by Teradyne in 2019 for $165m (source)
Atomico, La Famiglia, Visionaires Club, Hello • Customers: PSA, SEAT, Volvo, Campofrio, GSK, P&G, • Customers: Pactiv, Ford, Husqvarna
Tomorrow L´oreal, Airbus, Bekaert, GM (Ford)
• Customers: Audi
Axter Automation Alstef Group Balyo
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

FR | 1992 | n/a | 8 | CN FR | 1975 | $26.9m | 143 | - FR | 2005 | $21.7m | 142 |CN,US,SG

• Provides conversion of various form factors and • Provides forklift and mouse vehicles as part of wider • Provides a range of autonomous forklifts
other production/warehouse vehicles based on its warehouse automation equipment ranges • Euronext IPO (source) in 2017. Linde and Hyster
autonomy kit • BA Systemes merged with Alstef (FR) in 2018 to Vale are minority shareholders
• Raised: None disclosed form B2A Technology group (source), now renamed • Raised: Post-IPO €9.5m (2020), €6.1m (2021)
• Customers: None disclosed Alstef Group • Customers: P&G, Amazon, Renault, Kühne+Nagel,
• Customers: Candia Lons, L’Oreal, STEF, Norske Skog, DB Schenker
Clairefontaine, Fareva, Nestle Water, Heineken
CEIT Continental Dematic
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

SK | 1998 | $22.4m | 128 | -
• Provides a range of mouse and tugger form factors
with a modular approach to its vehicles
• Has sold primarily in East & Central Europe, but
increasingly selling in Western Europe
• Acquired (51%) by Asseco Group (PL,SK) in 2017
(acquired remaining 49% in 2018)
• Customers: Velux, Volkswagen, Skoda
DE | 1871 | €37.7bn | 71,229 | Global
• Provides a mouse vehicle. The business is a segment
within the Continental Automotive business unit
• Customers: None disclosed
US | 1819 | $2.3bn | 6,951 | Global
• Provides forklifts and other form factors as part of
larger material handling solutions. System
integrator with extensive portfolio of soft- and
hardware
• Acquired by KION in 2016 ($2.1bn). KION acquired
Egemin (AGVs) in 2015 (source) and later merged
the company into Dematic
• Customers: Adidas, American Eagle, Breville, Bosch 45
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
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VENDORS: AGV & AMR ROBOTS | D-F
Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

DS Automotion EA Mobile Robotics EK Robotics

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

AT | 1984 | n/a | 101 | US,FR
• Provides a full range of form factors
• SSI Schaefer acquired a stake in the company in
2018
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: Volvo, P&G, Audi, MAN, BMW, Linde,
Michelin, ZF, CAT, TGW, Kuka, Renault Trucks, ABB
SE | 1965 | n/a | 111 | -
• Provides a range of custom form factors
• Elektroautomatik, an industrial robotics system
integrator, acquired Jernbro’s AGV business in 2021
to form EA Mobile Robotics, a new division
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: Scania
DE | 1980 | n/a | 103 | UK,IT,CZ,DK
• Provides a full range of form factors, custom
vehicles and software. Changed name in 2021 (E&K
Automation)
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: Arla, Heineken, Pistoia Hospital, Volvo,
BMW, Aston Martin

E80 Group EPIQ Mecfor Fetch Robotics

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

IT | 1980 | n/a | 776 | FR,BR,AU,MX,PL,US+ CA | 2021 | n/a | 9 | - US | 2014 | n/a | 130 | -

• Provides a range of mouse and fork robots as part
of a larger warehouse management solution and
factory development provision. Claims to have
deployed >2,000 robotics systems and >4,500 AGVs
• H14 Group acquired a minority stake in 2020
• Customers: Tetra-Pak, Barilla, Nestlé, Constellation
Brands, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, Procter & Gamble
• Provides: A range of specialist autonomous vehicles
for transporting equipment in aluminium smelters
• Company created in 2021 in merger between
Advanced Dynamics and Mecfor (backed by SeaFort
Capital)
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed
• Provides: A range of mouse vehicles
• Raised $94m (latest $46m, Series C, 2019) from
SoftBank, Fort Ross Ventures, Translink Capital
• Acquired by Zebra in 2021 for $290m
• Customers: None disclosed

Filics FlexQube ForwardX

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

DE | 2019 | n/a | 11 | - SE | 2010 | $9.1m | 47 | - CN | 2016 | n/a | 55 | -

• Provides: Startup with a novel approach to a fork
robot with 2 separate “fork robots”
• Raised: Seed from Elokon and others
• Customers: None disclosed
• Provides vehicles based on its modular trolley
designs. Sells primarily to manufacturing industries
• Listed on Nasdaq First North in 2017
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: Amazon, Tesla, Volvo Car, Siemens,
Autoliv, Oda
• Provides a range of mobile robots targeting a wide
range of applications
• Raised $78.9m (latest $38m, Series B3, 2021) from
China Merchants Capital, Longfor Capital, Eastern
Bell Capital, CDH Investments
• Customers: JD Logistics, ITOCHU Logistics, TCL, SF
Supply Chain China
46
 Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
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VENDORS: AGV & AMR ROBOTS | G-J
Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

HOW TO READ VENDOR PROFILES

COMPANY NAME Gideon Brothers Grenzebach
COMPANY LOGO
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

UK | 2015 | est.$30m | 178 | EU HR | 2017 | n/a | 104 | - DE | 1960 | n/a | 291 | RO,BE,CN,IN,ID,US,BR+
Other offices • Provides mouse vehicles and have applied its • Provides a full range of form factors, from a
HQ Founded Yr. Revenue # Linkedin Staff
(latest known) autonomy software to other form factors standard range of mouse & forklifts to customised
Active website links • Raised $36.6m and heavy duty vehicles. Uses internal software, but
(Website, LinkedIn, • Customers: DB Schenker, Koch Industries, Atlantic can also deploy using Navitec or BlueBotics
CrunchBase, YouTube, =Interviewed Group • Raised: None disclosed
WarehouseAutomation
online directory) • Customers: Audi, Geodis

Haul Automation The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz idealworks

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

IN | 2020 | n/a | 9 | - IN | 2004 | n/a | 220 | - DE | 2020 | n/a | 34 | -

• Provides mouse vehicles, currently deployed in gas • Provides a range of mouse & forklift vehicles. • Provides: a mouse vehicle for use in a variety of
canister handling Company also involved in ADAS environments including automotive. Subsidiary of
• Raised: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed BMW
• Customers: IM Gears India • Customers: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed

IdentPro JBT Corporation Jungheinrich

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

DE | 2007 | n/a | 5 | -
• Software solutions for automated locating and
identifying of pallets that can be deployed with
manual and autonomous forklifts (track & trace)+
autonomous mobile robots with own navigation &
handling stack
• Customers: ABInBev, BMW, Arcelor Mittal,
Huhtamaki, Refresco, Schutz, Warsteiner
US | 1894 | $1.9bn | 1095 | UK,BR,MX,CN,SG+
• Provides a full range of form factors and acts as a
full service contractor
• Company (NYSE:JBT) builds F&B automation lines.
Intralogistics highlighted in analysts call as division
with high growth potential
• Sells AGVs to F&B and non-F&B customers
• Customers: GM, Georgia Pacific, P&G, JLR
DE | 1953 | $4.6bn | 2947 | Global
• Provides truck and forklift vehicles from own range
of forklifts and EVs
• Company is public (ETR:JUN3) and acts as system
integrator in multiple European countries since
1984. Operates Li-Ion battery factory in Germany
• Invested in Magazino in 2020 (source)
• Customers: UVEX, Ricola, Winkler Logistik
47
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VENDORS: AGV & AMR ROBOTS | K-M
Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

K Hartwall Karter Kivnon

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

FI | 1932 | n/a | 88 | - NL | 2021 | n/a | 12 | - ES | 2007 | n/a | 134 | DE,UK,US,BR,MX,FR,SK

• Provides: A range of Mouse and Fork vehicles • Provides: A range of floor to floor forklifts for • Provides a range of truck and mouse vehicles
• Company is specialist vendor of trolleys and carts pallets and carts • Raised: None disclosed
with added range of robots. Acquired majority stake • Karter is a division of Weighpack, a packaging • Customers: SEAT, Jaguar, Bentley, GM, Ford, ABB,
in A&A in 2018 specialist company Opel, Valeo, Johnson Controls, Normon, Renault
• Raised: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: DHL, Schneider, Brose, FedEx, Royal • Customers: None disclosed
Mail, Deutsche Post, Singapore Post
Liftco Linde Material Handling Lowpad
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

GR | 1996 | n/a | 7 | - US | 1904 | n/a | 1614 | Global NL | 2017 | n/a | 23 | -

• Provides: A range of Mouse and Forklifts • Manual forklift vendor part of KION group (acquired
• Raised: None disclosed 2007). Linde MH invested in Balyo in 2015 (source)
• Customers: None disclosed • Provides a range of forklifts that may be prepared
for conversion and are used by multiple vendors
• Customers: Fagerhult, C&A Veltins, Schneider
• Provides a range of mouse vehicles. Rebranded
from Eurotec to Lowpad. Part of Eurogroep group of
companies (link)
• Raised: none disclosed
• Customers: KWS, ASM, Montapacking, Royal Lemke,
DHL, GXO

MasterMover MAX AGV Milvus Robotics

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

UK | 1997 | n/a | 65 | US, BR,DE,FR SE | 1987 | n/a | 32 | CN TR | 2011 | n/a | 22 | -

• Provides a range of tugger vehicles • Provides a range of mouse, fork and custom • Provides a range of mouse vehicles
• Specialist truck/tugger manufacturer with recent vehicles. The MaxAGV brand is operated by ATAB • Currently expanding internationally
entry into AGVs and Soft Design • Customers: None disclosed
• Raised: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed • Customers: Arla, Asko, BMW, DHL, Pfizer, IKEA,
Jaguar Land Rover, MSD, Sandvik, Volvo

48
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Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

MIR Mitsubishi Logisnext Modoya

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

DK | 2013 | n/a | 232 | US,ES,CN,SG,DE,JP
• Provides a standard range of mouse vehicles
• Started selling via distributors. Operates the MiRGo
marketplace for vendors making applications for
the MiR AGVs (link)
• Acquired by Teradyne in 2018 for $272m
• Customers: Visteon, Stera, Ford, Whirlpool,
Kamstrup, Infinitus, ICM
Movexx
W in cb WA
FI | 1942 | n/a | 128 | Global TR | 2015 | n/a | 21 | -
• Provides a range of autonomous forklifts under the • Provides a full range of form factors
Rocla brand. Have sold 7,000 AGVs since 1982 • Has served primarily the domestic market, but
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries acquired Rocla in 2008. commenced international sales since 2019
The business changed name to Mitsubishi Logisnext • Raised: None disclosed
EMEA, whilst AGVs retained the Rocla brand • Customers: Tofas/Fiat, Martur, Arcelik/Beko, Farel
• Customers: Seeberger, Ricoh, Bring Logistics
MoviGo Robotics NC Nielsen
W in cb WA W in cb WA

NL | 2006 | n/a | 45 | - NL | 2018 | n/a | 9 | - DK | 1972 | $112m | 136 | -

• Provides a range of autonomous tuggers • Provides forklift and mouse vehicles • Linde distributor that also provides autonomous
• Specialist in tugger equipment, founded in 2006 • Appears to be a division/subsidiary of Pentacon forklifts based on the Linde chassis
• Raised: None disclosed (link), a Dutch mechanical engineering firm • Revenue (all products) $112m in 2019, down from
• Customers: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed $119m in 2018
• Customers: Panbo Systems • Company is an authorised distributor of Linde, Kone
Cranes and other material handling brands
• Customers: Bossard
NIDO Nipper AGV Omron
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

IN | 2010 | n/a | 82 | - NL | 2013 | n/a | 14 | - JP | 1933 | €5.6bn | 2325 | Global

• Provides: Range of mouse vehicles
• Nido Machineries, the parent company, is a system
integrator of material handling equipment and
robotics. NIDO Robotics is newly spun up division
manufacturing own mouse vehicles
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: Pilot stage
• Provides a single forklift vehicles for Euro pallets
Produced by F3 Design (link), a Dutch automated
pallet wrapping equipment manufacturer
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: Pfizer, L’Oreal, Takeda, Nex Logistics
Europe, Ryobi, Colgate-Palmolive
• Provides a range of mouse vehicles (originally based
on Adept Robotics, acquired for c.£200m in 2015)
• Omron has a wide range of robotics: Mobile, Fixed
Robots, Cobots, and automation products
• Customers: BMW, Skoda, Tepe, Vola
49
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Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

HOW TO READ VENDOR PROFILES

COMPANY NAME Oppent Otto Motors
COMPANY LOGO
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

UK | 2015 | est.$30m | 178 | EU IT | 1960 | n/a | 70 | - CA | 2008 | n/a | 249 | -

Other offices • Provides a range of form factors • Provides a range of mouse and forklift vehicles
HQ Founded Yr. Revenue # Linkedin Staff
(latest known) • Company is a specialist in vacuum tubes, focus on • Company is division of Clearpath Inc, an outdoor &
Active website links healthcare, retail and industrial applications rugged robotics manufacturer
(Website, LinkedIn, • Customers: Watercraft Engines, Acibadem Maslak • Raised $79m (latest $5.5m, Series C2, 2020) from
CrunchBase, YouTube, =Interviewed Hospital McRock Capital, GE Ventures, RRE Ventures,
WarehouseAutomation
online directory) Kensington Capital, SVB
• Customers: None disclosed
Outrider Robmov Robotize
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

US | 2017 | n/a | 142 | - ES | 2018 | n/a | - | - DK | 2016 | n/a | 23 | -

• Provides: An autonomous yard management vehicle
for moving truck trailers
• Raised: $118m (latest $65m, Series B, 2020) from
Prologis Ventures, Koch Disruptive Tech, Goose
Capital and others
• Customers: None disclosed
• Provides a mouse vehicle
• Company is division of Ear-Flap Group, a Spanish
end of line packaging equipment vendor
• Customers: None disclosed
• Provides a range of mouse vehicles with focus on
pallet handling
• Strategy to sell via distributors
• Raised undisclosed from two Danish angel investors
• Customers: Scanfil, Trio Line Polska, AVK Gummi

Safelog Scott Automation Seegrid

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

DE | 1996 | n/a | 80 | US
• Provides a range of form factors
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: Audi, BMW, Karcher, Media Markt,
CEWE, Sennheiser, Opel, Thomas Sabo, Yes Logistics
AU | 1982 | n/a | 328 | Global via Scott
• Provides a range of form factors
• Transbotics was acquired by Scott Automation in
2018 for est. $5m and have been rebranded into
the wider group
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed
US | 2003 | n/a | 334 | -
• Provides tugger and forklift vehicles
• Raised: $150m (latest Venture Round, $52m) from
G2VP, Giant Eagle
• Customers: Raymond, Amazon, Whirlpool,
Goodyear, GM, BMW, Giant Eagle

50
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Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

Sherpa Mobile Robots Smarlogy Steering Machines

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

FR | 2000 | n/a | 21 | - ES | 2001 | n/a | 11 | - ES | 2018 | n/a | 5 | -

• Provides mouse vehicles • Provides a range of forklift and tugger vehicles • Provides a range of mouse vehicles
• Company is spin-out from Norcan, a warehouse • Smarlogy is short for Smart Technology S.A. • Raised: None disclosed
interiors manufacturer & vendor. Entered JV with • Raised: None disclosed • Customers: None disclosed
Balyo in 2018 for navigation technology • Customers: None disclosed
• Customers: Siemens, Safran, Socomec, CNH
Industrial, fnac, BMW

Standard Robots Staubli WFT Synersight

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

CN | 2015 | n/a | 27 | JP CH | 1918 | $1.3bn | 1591 | Global ES | 2017 | n/a | 58 | MX,PT,FR,CL,SI,UK,IT,NL

• Provides: An range of form factors
• Raised: $21.5m (latest $21.5m, Series B, 2020)
• Customers: None disclosed
• Provides a range of custom vehicles with a focus on • Provides mouse and truck vehicles
very high payloads • JV between C-mayor (ES) and Hedesis (ES)
• STÄUBLI acquired WFT GmbH in 2018 • Claims to have deployed 3,500 AGVs
• Raised: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed • Customers: Faurecia, IVECO, Renault

System Logistics Toyota Advanced Logistics Transolt

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

IT | 1986 | e.$60m | 478 | TH,SE,ES,US,MX,UK,DE
• Provides a range of mouse & forklift + custom
vehicles
• Krones Group (F&B automation, DE) acquired 60%
stake in the company in 2016 (STIQ est. EV €55m).
Intralogistics operations were pooled into System
Logistics in 2019 to focus on international growth
• Customers: Coca Cola, Muller, Pepsico, Herdez
US | 1940 | n/a | 12 | Global (via Toyota)
• Provides a range of tuggerand forklift vehicles and
also buy in third party vehicles
• Toyota acquired Bastian Solutions in 2017. TAL is a
merger of Toyota’s AGV activities and Bastian
Solutions
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed
TR | 2011 | n/a | 5 | -
• Provides a full range of form factors
• Raised: $250k (latest $250k, Pre-Seed, 2017) from
Emsolt Investment Holding
• Customers: Toyota, SMZ, Toyotetsu
51
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Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

VDL Automated Vehicles Vecna Robotics Versabox

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

NL | 2016 | n/a | 18 | - US | 2018 | n/a | 125 | - PL | 2013 | n/a | 29 | -

• Provides: A range of vehicles mainly for port • Provides a range of truck and forklift vehicles • Provides a mouse vehicle
management. Part of the VDL Group • Spun out from Vecna Technologies (founded in • Raised $1.8m (latest $1.6m, 2018) from Fidiasz EVC.
• Raised: None disclosed 1998) Has also received EU Funding (source)
• Customers: Aviko, BASF, Port of Singapore, Port of • Raised $63.5m (latest $50m, Series B, 2020) from • Customers: None disclosed
Rotterdam Fontinalis Partners, Drive Capital, Highland Capital
Partners, Tectonic Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures
• Customers: Fedex, Geodis, DHL Supply Chain,
VisionNav Robotics
W in cb WA

CN | 2016 | n/a | 22 | -
• Provides a range of form factors
• Raised $16.9m (latest Series B, $14.1m), from
Lenovo Capital & Incubator Group, Flyfot Ventures,
Eastern Bell Capital, Ivy Capital, etc.
• Customers: Nutriway, Nestle, Gree, DHL, Suning

52
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Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

HOW TO READ VENDOR PROFILES

COMPANY NAME Alias Robotics Beta Robots
COMPANY LOGO
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

UK | 2015 | est.$30m | 178 | EU ES | 2018 | n/a | 14 | US ES | 2016 | n/a | 4 | -

Other offices • Provides a cyber security solution “RIS” (Robot • Provides: Autonomy software for AGV & AMR
HQ Founded Yr. Revenue # Linkedin Staff
(latest known)
Immune System) for physical robots. Currently vendors
Active website links ready for robots from UVD Robots, UR, MIR, KUKA, • Raised: None disclosed
(Website, LinkedIn, ABB and any ROS/ROS 2 robot • Customers: Steering Machines, Robmov, IDASA
CrunchBase, YouTube, =Interviewed • Raised $0.8m (latest, Pre-Seed $0.8m) from Baron
WarehouseAutomation
online directory) Capital Management, Wayra
• Customers: None disclosed
BlueBotics Brain Corp Brisa
W in cb WA
W in cb WA W in cb WA

CH | 2001 | n/a | 55 | - US | 2009 | n/a | 259 | - BR | 2018 | n/a | 11 | DE

• Provides navigation software + fleet manager • Primarily focused on cleaning machines autonomy. • Provides a full stack navigation software + hardware
• Raised $ unknown, latest Series B (2018, $ Recently partnered with UniCarriers America for kit to European and American end customers to
unknown) from Forestay Capital material handling AGVs retrofit to their existing vehicle fleets
• Customers: ABB, Cleanfix, Esatroll, F3-Design, • Website claims 10,000 vehicles are powered by its • Company founded by ex-Fraunhofer people
Nakanishi Metal Works (NKC), Oppent, Stöcklin, navigation algorithms • Customers: None disclosed
Toyota • Customers: Tennant, Dane Technologies, Nilfisk,
UniCarriers
Effidence GIM Robotics Goetting
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

FR | 2009 | n/a | 15 | - FI | 2014 | n/a | 43 | - DE | 1965 | n/a | 22 |-

• Started out building robotics for military and civilian
applications. Focused on logistics and provide own
AGV “Effibot”
• Recently entered partnership with Manitou to
provide autonomy software for a range of forklifts
• Customers: Manitou, Rhenus Logistics
• Provides: A SLAM/RTLS software kit for in/outside
navigation & localisation of mobile robots
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed
• Provides a navigation software stack to a variety of
vehicles, from municipal cleaning to trucks in yard
operations. Small range of mouse AGVs
• Interviews suggest Goetting sells its navigation
software externally to AGV manufacturers
• Software appears to be marketed via GS
Fleetcontrol GmbH (source)
53
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Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

Guidance Automation Indoorway IncubedIT

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

UK | 1990 | n/a | 18 | US PL | 2015 | n/a | 22 | - AT | 2011 | n/a | 24 | -

• Originally a radar & navigation software vendor. Re- • Provides: RTLS and simulation stack for material flow • Provides a navigation software stack with fleet
structured following acquisition in 2017. Now • Raised: $0.8m manager
provides laser & contour navigation technology and • Customers: None disclosed • Started as a software /navigation tech consultancy
fleet manager working on WMS systems, etc.
• Acquired by Matthews International in 2017 and • Acquired by Verizon in 2021
went through reorganisation • Customers: Knapp, PIA, Beewatec
• Customers: MasterMover, Vanderlande, Dematic
Kollmorgen Kudan Mov.ai
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

US | 1916 | n/a | 733 | SE,CN,IT,JP,KR,IN,BR+ JP | 2011 | n/a | 32 | UK,US,DE PT | 2016| n/a | 23 | -

• Provides: Software for navigation and fleet • Provides: Visual SLAM + RTLS solution for mobile • Provides a ROS-based AGV navigation solution and
manager. Kollmorgen also provides electronics and robotics and ADAS applications. Acquired stake in fleet manager
hardware for building AGV & AMRs Artisense in 2020 • Sells navigation software to OEM and end-
• Acquired by Altra Motion in 2018 • Raised: $5m. Listed in Japan in 2018 customers
• Customers: Toyota, Jungheinrich, Logisnext, ASTI, EK • Customers: None disclosed • Raised: $7.6m
Automation, System Ceramics, Comau, Hangcha • Customers: None disclosed

Navitec Systems Node Robotics Phantom Auto

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

FI | 1998 | n/a| 27 | US DE | 2020 | n/a | 17 | - US | 2017 | n/a | 83 | -

• Navitec Systems originally provided autonomy • Provides: An autonomy stack + fleet manager for • Provides: Tele operation and control & monitoring
solutions to mining vehicles. AMRs. Founders worked at Fraunhofer Institute software stack for converting manual vehicles and to
• Raised: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed monitor/control AGV & AMR robots
• Customers: None disclosed • Customers: None disclosed • Raised: $25.0m
• Customers: None disclosed

54
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Note: The number of employees used Linkedin as a source. To be used only as a “soft indicator”. Many Asian vendors do not use Linkedin extensively

Proxima Robotics Romaric Ruvu Robotics

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

IT | 2018 | n/a | 6 | - US | 2001 | n/a | 20 | TW NL | 2017 | n/a | 3 | -

• Provides: A mobile robot autonomy stack • Provides an agnostic fleet manager • Provides: A mobile robot autonomy stack
• Raised: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed • Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed • Clients: None disclosed • Customers: Movigo Robotics (+c.5 POCs)

Sevensense Robotics SLAMcore SVT Robotics

W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

CH | 2018 | n/a | 21 | - UK | 2016 | n/a | 25 | - US | 2018 | n/a | 23 | UK

• Provides: A mobile robot autonomy stack. Partnered • Provides a vision-based RTLS software solution with • Provides integration layer (middleware) software to
with and received investment from ABB in 2021 additional mapping and object classification connect robots with WMS, ERP, etc. business
• Raised: $7.7m capabilities solutions
• Customers: Wetrok, Kyburz Switzerland, Safelog, • Raised $10m (latest Series n/a $5m) from MMC • Raised $30.6m
Rapyuta Robotics, ABB Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Amadeus Capital • Customers: MacGregor Partners, Berken Solutions,
Partners, Toyota AI Ventures, Mirai Creation Fund, CJ Logistics
• Customers: None disclosed
Syncware SYNAOS Third Wave
W in cb WA W in cb WA W in cb WA

SG | 2021 | n/a | 5 | - DE | 2018 | n/a | 79 | - US | 2018 | n/a | 31 | -

• Provides integration layer (middleware) software to
connect robots with WMS, ERP, etc. business solutions
• Raised: None disclosed
• Customers: None disclosed
• Provides: An agnostic robotics fleet manager. • Provides: An autonomy stack based on
Founders are ex-VW reinforcement learning and remote assistance
• Raised: $6.9m • Raised $15m (latest $15m, Series A, 2020) from
• Customers: Volkswagen, Connox Heartland Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, Toyota AI
Ventures, Homebrew, Innovation Endeavours
• Customers: None disclosed

55
CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
AGV & AMR ROBOTICS
SEGMENTATION 4
TECHNOLOGY 5
BUSINESS MODELS 11
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
INTERVIEW WITH USER OF AGVs & AMRs 18
Free distribution of this report was enabled by: JOURNEY DETAILS 19
GROWTH
AGV & AMR MARKET 23
GROWTH BY INDUSTRY SECTOR 25
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION 27
AGV & AMR DEMOGRAPHICS
VENDOR GROWTH 31
ACCESS TO TALENT 35
FUNDING AND M&A
SECTOR FUNDING 39
NOTABLE M&A TRANSACTIONS 41
COMPANY PROFILES 44
CREDITS, INTERVIEWEES & SPONSOR 57
MARKET SIZE DATA Contact us

56

CREDITS & INTERVIEWEES, TRADE SHOWS, GLOSSARY
INTERVIEWS - AGV & AMR HW/SW VENDORS:
• Agilox (AT)
• Alstef Group (FR)
• Balyo (FR)
• Beta Robots (ES)
• BlueBotics (CH)
• Continental (DE)
• DS Automotion (DE)
• EK Robotics (DE)
• E80 Group (IT)
• Epiq Machinery (CA)
• Filics (DE)
• FlexQube (SE)
• ForwardX (CN)
• Geek+ (CN)
• Geek+ (CN)
• Gideon Brothers (HR)
• GIM Robotics (FI)
• Haul Automation (IN)
• The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz (IN)CEO
• idealworks (DE)
• IncubedIT (AT)
• Indoorway (PL)
• JBT Corp (US)
• K Hartwall (FI)
• Karter (NL)
• Kollmorgen (SE)
• Kudan (JP)
• Linde Material Handling (DE) Product Manager EMEA
• Logisnext (FI)
• Lowpad (NL)
• MaxAGV (SE)
• MIR (DK)
• NIDO (IN)
• Node Robotics (DE)
• Omron (JP)
• Phantom Auto (US)
• Proxima Robotics (IT)
Published by STIQ Ltd, Nov 2021
Free distribution courtesy of:
• Seegrid (US) VP of Product GLOSSARY
Director Product Mgmt • Sevensense (IT) CBDO 3PL Third Party Logistics
Sales Director Intralogistics • SLAMcore (UK) CEO AGV Automated Guided Vehicle
CEO • Standard Robotics (CN) Director of Overseas AKA Also Known As
• Steering Machines (ES) CEO AMR Autonomous Mobile Robot
CEO & Co-founder AMV Autonomous Mobile Vehicle
CEO • SVT Robotics (US) Sr Director of Marketing
ASRS Automatic Storage & Retrieval System
Head of Product Line Intra Logistics • SYNAOS (DE) CPO & Co-founder
BMS Battery Management System
Head of Product Mgmt • Syncware (SG) CEO & Co-founder CFC Central Fulfilment Centre
UK Managing Director • System Logistics (IT) Head of UK CPG Consumer Packaged Goods (US)
EVP of Sales • Third Wave (US) CEO DC Distribution Centre
Product Manager AGV • Vecna Robotics (US) CEO ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
CEO & Co-founder Note [Anonymous Vendor] = an AGV/AMR vendor EV Electric Vehicle
INTERVIEWS - USERS & BUYERS: F2F Floor to Floor (~when moving a pallet)
CEO
Fiducial Marker used to localise a robot
Director Global Expansion Multiple companies & individuals that requested FMCG Fast Moving Consumer Goods (UK)
General Manager, M&F anonymity including global 3PLs and manufacturers FTE Full Time Employee
General Manager, Americas We’re extending a big thank you to these contributors! Kinetics Vehicle drive wheel configuration
Exec Operations Manager • [Anonymous AGV & AMR User] (Factory-based) M&A Mergers & Acquisitions
CEO • [Anonymous 3PL] (Warehouse/3PL) Mgr/Mgmt Manager/Management
Co-founder … AND THESE COMPONENT SUPPLIERS: Odometry Output from motion sensors
PCB Printed Circuit Board
• Maxon (CH) [Drive Systems] [Web] PLC Programmable Logic Controller
COO • Mobotic (DE) [Drive Systems] [Web] RAAS Robotics as a Service
Product Manager • Nvidia (US) [Microprocessors] [Web] ROI Return on Investment
COO • SICK (DE) [Sensors] [Web] ROS Robotics Operating System (ROS +ROS2)
Commercial Manager • Wiferion (DE) [Wireless Charging] [Web] RTLS Real Time Localisation System
EVP • Varta (DE) [Battery & Power Systems] [Web] Sensor Fusion Output from combination of multiple sensors
Commercial Director • Wiferion (DE) [Wireless Charging] [Web] SLAM Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping
R&D Director SMB Small & Medium Businesses (US)
COO
EVENTS (STIQ RECOMMENDS): SME Small & Medium Enterprises (UK)
Visited TCO Total Cost of Ownership
• PPMA (UK) [Web] VSLAM Visual SLAM
VP Logistics Solutions
• Tomorrow’s Warehouse Event (UK) [Web] WMS Warehouse Management System
Sales Development Mgr
• Advanced Engineering (UK) [Web] YOY Year on Year
Sales Director
CMO
Not visited (* = STIQ will attend in 2022) FURTHER RESOURCES (CONTACT US):
• Automatica (DE) * [Web] • AGV & AMR Robotics market size data
CEO
• CeMAT (DE) [Web]
CEO & Co-founder • To discuss this report or the wider sector, trends,
• IMHX (UK) * [Web]
EU Product Marketing Mgr equipment, solutions, etc.
• Logimat (DE) * [Web]
CBO & Co-founder Email STIQ Ltd > tom@styleintelligence.com
• Modex (US) * [Web] 57
CEO

400+ Patents
Goods-to-Person
Reduce the daily walking of
pickers by 20 km and
improve efficiency by 2x
AMR SOLUTIONS FOR EVERY SCENARIO
No.1 AMR Leader 20,000+ Robots Deployed
RoboShuttle AislePick Sorting Moving
Improve picking Reduce labor intensity by 30- Improve sorting Improve efficiency by 50%+
efficiency by 2-3x and 50% with collaborative robots efficiency by 10x with robots guided by QR
achieve rapid ROI featuring SLAM navigation code + SLAM navigation
58
and obstacle avoidance