Newsblog

The finals of the Best of Industry Awards were exciting: After the six-month voting phase, readers of the Vogel Communications Group's trade media voted for their favorite and decided which company's innovations and projects would receive the coveted industry award.  Now the X MOVE has been honored with the Best of Industry Award in the conveyor technology category. "We are very delighted to receive this award for our 2-in-1 transport platform. The Best of Industry Award recognizes the work of our colleagues who worked on the X MOVE and made it ready for the market as a new transport solution," says Ronald Kretschmer, Chief Sales Officer at ek robotics.

X MOVE: The best of two technology worlds

The X MOVE, which is available in five versions, is the world's first AGV that can be used in an AGV or AMR system. Which of the two transport systems is used in a company's automated production depends primarily on the purpose and the area of application. To navigate its programmed route, it uses orientation devices such as laser reflectors, environmental contours or barcodes. AGVs move predictably, they drive according to a timetable, and they are particularly efficient, safe and reliable.  Setting up an AGV system is complex because the layout of the driving courses and the respective transport steps have to be planned and programmed precisely in advance. On the other hand, Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) can be deployed more in a shorter time. They do not follow a predefined route and move freely. This eliminates much of the time-consuming and labor-intensive setup required by AGVs. While AMRs are suitable for simple applications, AGVs are predominantly used for complex and challenging tasks.

Maximum speed while cornering

Another innovation makes the X MOVE even more efficient: The protective fields of the safety laser scanners are activated dynamically by detecting the speed and steering angle information. The result: The X MOVE not only reaches maximum speed on a straight line, it also gets the most out of curves. In addition, the X MOVE supports the VDA 5050 interface - the future standard for AGVs in the automotive sector and many other industries.

Besides the Best of Industry Award, the VARIO MOVE transport robot from ek robotics also received the Red Dot Design Award and the German Design Award 2023.