Arrow Electronics, together with its engineering services subsidiary eInfochips, has worked with ST Microelectronics (ST) to unveil a new industrial autonomous mobile robot (AMR) reference platform, designed to shorten the path from concept to deployment for professional service robots.
AMRs are rapidly transforming factories, laboratories, warehouses and logistics centers. These robots must safely navigate dynamic environments, localize accurately indoors, manage energy efficiently, and integrate advanced perception and artificial intelligence, while meeting demanding reliability and time-to-market requirements. Many robotics original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and integrators struggle to assemble, validate and industrialize these complex subsystems independently.
To address this challenge, Arrow and eInfochips worked with ST to deliver a fully functional AMR kit built on a complete ST bill of materials, tightly integrated with an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano based compute platform and NVIDIA ROS 2 software stack. Arrow and eInfochips contribute their proven Rover mechanical platform and system integration expertise, while ST provides a comprehensive portfolio of industrial-grade components and reference designs.
The new AMR reference kit combines the following features:
Source: Arrow Electronics
- Robust power and battery management for 24 V operation, with a pre-validated path to 48 V architectures
- STM32-based real-time controller board, acting as a powerful interface between the NVIDIA platform and the robot's sensors and actuators
- Advanced motion control, including dual BLDC motor drives based on STSPIN32 and STDRIVE devices for precise, smooth navigation
- Rich sensing for perception and safety, using ST MEMS IMUs, magnetometers and environmental sensors, complemented by lidar and vision inputs for SLAM-based mapping and navigation
- Industrial ROS 2 software integration, enabling mapping, localization and autonomous navigation with standard tools such as Cartographer, NAV2 and RViz ROS 2
The new platform offers a robust, pretested system-level design that significantly reduces development risk, integration effort and time to market. Robot manufacturers and system integrators can start from a working, realistic AMR including chassis, electronics and software and then rely on engineering services from Arrow and eInfochips to customize mechanics, features and cost-optimized designs, while ST provides a one-stop, complete bill-of-materials solution with long-term product support.
This cooperation enables the AMR ecosystem to move faster from prototype to production, helping customers deliver safer, smarter and more efficient mobile robots for industrial and commercial environments worldwide.
"This solution brings together the performance, flexibility, and pre-validated integration robotics customers need to move faster from development to deployment, while giving them a scalable foundation that can address a broad range of industrial and commercial robotics applications," said Shelby Schnurrenberger, vice president supplier management, global semiconductor, Arrow Electronics.
"ST's broad industrial portfolio is a natural fit for AMR applications, where reliability, performance and scalability are essential. By combining our technologies with Arrow's engineering services, we are helping customers turn innovative robotic concepts into industrial-ready solutions. Together, we can accelerate the development of the next generation of AMRs for the market," said Allan Lagasca, application director — robotics segment strategic program (SSP), smart industrials segment leader, STMicroelectronics.
