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Insights from the world of mobile robotics

Expertise on planning, simulation and standards for mobile robot systems – plus news from product and company.

DXF import of a facility layout in the FleetEngine Editor as the basis for LIF export
Tech & Standards FEATURED

LIF in practice: what the format changes for your project

What the Layout Interchange Format delivers: which layout data it exchanges, where the line to fleet control runs, and what the LIF 2.0 draft changes.

Florian Köster Florian Köster 6 min
Schematic of a handover station: three mobile robots waiting in a queue next to a cycle bar split into three segments for approach and positioning, load transfer, and release by the process behind the station
Industry Insights

Handover stations: the bottleneck nobody sizes for

Robots rarely limit throughput, the handover station does. Why the cycle at the transfer point sets your fleet size, and how to check it before you order.

· 5 min
Two-part diagram: at the top one master control with two manufacturers connected via VDA 5050, marked solved. Below, the same two mobile robots meet at a node, each with a differently sized envelope around its contour, marked open
Industry Insights

Mixed AMR Fleet: Interoperability Is Not a Traffic Plan

VDA 5050 interoperability became a selling point in 2026. What it solves in a mixed fleet, where the bottleneck moves, and what that means for procurement.

· 5 min
Throughput plotted against fleet size, showing the linear range, saturation and the tipping point beyond which throughput declines
Industry Insights

More robots, less throughput: the fleet tipping point

Beyond a certain point, every extra robot lowers throughput. Why the curve turns, where that point sits and how simulation finds it before you buy the fleet.

· 6 min
Layered diagram: below master control, the VDA 5050 topics and the mobile robots sit the maps as a layer of their own. The forklift has its own map, two robots share one. From each map a LIF path leads up to master control
Tech & Standards

VDA 5050: Does the robot still need a map of its own?

VDA 5050 was meant to make the map on the robot obsolete. Why it stayed in nearly every project, what it costs, and since when the standard governs it.

· 6 min
Simulation of a mobile robot fleet in the ScaliRo platform
Industry Insights

Simulate before you invest: planning mobile robot fleets

How many robots do we need? Why static calculations fail for mobile robots, and how simulation validates fleet size and throughput before you invest.

· 4 min