Warehouse AMR Guide Autonomous mobile robots in UK warehouses

Warehouse AMRs, autonomous mobile robots, are the most common response to this problem. An AMR can move goods around a warehouse floor without the need for a human driver, bring shelving to pickers rather than sending pickers to shelving, and scale up by adding more robots rather than hiring more people.

This guide covers what AMR automation actually involves, what it costs in the UK, and what separates a good implementation from an expensive learning exercise. If you want a plain definition first, our AMR glossary page has it.

Warehouse AMRs navigate around your factory or warehouse using onboard sensors and mapping software (technology known as SLAM). They build a map of the warehouse floor and then can route themselves around obstacles, other robots, and people, without requiring a fixed guidance path such as tracks, magnetic tape or embedded wire. That's what separates them from an AGV, which is a similar technology but follows a predefined route and needs the route physically changed whenever the layout does.

The most common deployment format for warehouse AMRs is goods-to-person, where AMRs carry shelving units or tote bins to a stationary picker rather than sending the picker off to walk aisles looking for products. A manual picker walking to products might typically achieve around 60–80 picks per hour, while a well-designed goods-to-person station can exceed 300 picks per hour.

Payload capacity on most AMR platforms runs from around 100kg to 1,500kg depending on the system. Autonomous pallet-moving AMRs sit at the heavier end and start to overlap with traditional AGV territory, which is worth understanding if your operation moves pallets rather than totes.

AMR vs AGV - What's the Difference?

The short version: an AGV follows a fixed path. An AMR finds its own.

An AGV uses magnetic tape, reflective markers or wire embedded in the floor to navigate. It's reliable on a route that never changes. Change the layout and you've got a problem, because the route infrastructure has to change with it. An AMR builds a map of its environment using SLAM technology and routes itself dynamically, navigating around obstacles and adapting when zones are reconfigured without touching physical infrastructure.

If you're evaluating both technologies for a specific application, our AMR vs AGV comparison guide covers the full breakdown: where each technology wins, where they overlap at the pallet-moving end of the market, and how to make the decision for your operation.