Published on 12 May 2022

Continental and TÜV SÜD launch partnership to make Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) safer for public use

There has been an increased interest in AMRs in recent years, especially since the pandemic started. Today, leading technology company Continental is including these state-of-the-art solutions into their product portfolio. Building on the company’s years of extensive research in the robotics field, it is now ready to unveil Continental Mobile Robots, a new area in its robotics business. In September 2022, Continental will introduce to the AMR market its first-ever intralogistics robot, featuring the company’s industry-leading technology and software solutions. 

Many trials are being conducted globally, including in Singapore, to assess the capabilities of AMRs as well as their safety aspects. However, there has yet to be a city where AMRs have been deployed on a large commercial scale. Regulatory authorities around the world are looking closely into how AMRs can operate safely with other road or sidewalk users such as pedestrians, cyclists and drivers with vehicles or personal mobility devices.

Continental and TÜV SÜD, global provider of testing, inspection and certification services, signed  MoU on 12 May 2022 to develop a set of safety criteria for the use of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) in the urban environment.

One of the first few scenarios to assess will be the teleoperation or controlling of an AMR from a remote location. The key criteria in such an operation would be latency, cybersecurity, and reliability. This would certainly enable commercialization by reducing the cost of the safety operator which today is mandated by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to follow the robot. With greater adoption and commercialization of AMRs in the future, one teleoperator could potentially manage up to 20 robots remotely and effectively reduce this cost by 20 times.

TÜV SÜD to assess safety of AMR trial at JTC Summit

Through the MoU, one of the projects which Continental and TÜV SÜD will collaborate on is a trial at the JTC Summit, using autonomous robots to fulfill last-mile delivery services. Working with JTC and LTA, robots developed by Continental will run on fixed routes, subjected to site-specific safety considerations, under a pilot to deliver food from the food and beverage outlets in Jurong East and the JTC Summit.

TÜV SÜD will work closely with Continental to assess various safety aspects of this trial and develop a set of criteria that can potentially be used as the safety framework for AMRs deployed in cities.