Standards facilitate interoperability. Without them, intralogistics assets cannot be operated and orchestrated in an efficient manner. While we believe that the VDA 5050 is the way to go and stand fully behind it, we also recognize that the current demand for this standardized communication interface is not yet ubiquitous. And then there is the issue with AMRs: It is currently impossible to control AMRs through VDA 5050. In general, bringing together centralized and decentralized solutions will mean it is necessary to cut down on the AMRs’ respective USPs. However, we believe there could be a compromise solution combining the best of both worlds for our customers: introducing VDA 5050 to their operations and integrating independent AMRs – which may not be able to fully play out all of their unique capabilities but will enrich the intralogistics fleet, nonetheless.

In the meantime, we are fully committed to contributing to the wider adoption and further development of VDA 5050. We currently offer multi-version support but also work with customers who don’t operate hardware based on this standard by building customized interfaces and by onboarding mobile robot manufacturers in a swift and structured, field-tested process.

Thanks to the combined expertise and flexibility of the SYNAOS team and industry partners, our customers can efficiently realize and run their intralogistics whilst achieving operational excellence – no matter their setup!