Big Sky Engineering designs, builds, and integrates Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) systems for the laboratories and factories that can’t afford to stop. From sample-tube delivery in molecular diagnostics to tray transfer on a Tier-1 automotive line, our AMR integrations are engineered around real-world constraints — doorway heights, hallway widths, payload geometry, throughput windows, and the people who share the floor with the robots.
Drop-in AMRs are easy. Production-grade integrations are not. We treat every project as a custom build: the right base platform, the right end-of-arm or top-module, the right controls, and a safety, service, and integration story that survives twenty-four-hour operation.
AMR Integration, End to End
We don’t sell a robot — we deliver a system. That means BSE owns the work from concept feasibility through commissioning and after-sale support:
- Platform selection. We standardize on OTTO Motors AMRs and FANUC robots — we know them deeply, keep spares on hand, and have proven their behavior in the field across multiple deployments. We’ll integrate Omron, MiR, KUKA, Universal Robots, and other platforms when an application calls for it, and we’ll tell you up front when a platform won’t make the spec.
- Custom payload tops & end effectors. Powered lift modules, conveyor tops, gripper integrations, sample-rack carriers, vision-guided pick stations. Designed in-house and validated against center-of-gravity, dynamic-load, and washdown requirements.
- Controls & software. Allen-Bradley PLC, custom HMIs, fleet manager integration, two-way communication with your LIS / PIMS / MES / SCADA over EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, Modbus TCP, and OPC.
- Safety & compliance. Risk assessments and guarding to OSHA, ANSI/RIA R15.06, ISO 13849, and IEC 60204 from day one — not bolted on at FAT.
- Service architecture. Modular design with documented spares and long-lead items flagged early. Critical components are engineered for one-hour swap-out by your in-house maintenance team, with full system restoration within 24 hours — no waiting on us to fly in.
What Sets Big Sky Apart
Designed for the building you already have
Most AMR projects fail at the doorway, not the algorithm. We measure every constraint that matters — clear-height, hallway widths, threshold transitions, charger placement, network coverage, ambient temperature, and acoustic limits — and engineer the platform and the path around them. No renovation required.
Designed for 24/7
Diagnostic labs and assembly lines don’t have a maintenance window. Battery rotation, wireless charging optimization, fault recovery, error-queue handling, and graceful degradation are first-class deliverables, not afterthoughts.
Designed for your maintenance team
Modular components, documented spares, ergonomic load points, intuitive HMIs. Your maintenance team can swap critical components in under an hour without specialty tools — no flight-out from us required.
Integrated, not just deployed
Two-way data flow with your LIS, PIMS, MES, or SCADA is standard scope: sample IDs, tray IDs, equipment status, cycle timestamps, error events, and historization. Real-time visibility, not a black box on wheels.
Selected AMR Integration Projects
Automated Lab Equipment Loading
A leading molecular diagnostics customer needed to scale processing throughput across more than seventy automated lab stations arranged in modular pods. BSE integrated a fleet of OTTO Motors AMRs with custom tray-handling tops, paired with FANUC robotic loaders for automated tray transfer.
The system handles trays of 50 mL conical tubes at thirty trays per hour, scans barcodes at every transfer, communicates sample state bi-directionally with the customer’s LIS/PIMS, and routes any failed sample to a managed error queue. Cycle times, payload geometry, doorway clearances, and pod-to-pod path planning were all engineered around an existing laboratory footprint.
Automated Sample Transport
For a high-throughput clinical lab, BSE designed an AMR sample-transport solution that moves rack carriers between accessioning stations and downstream analytic labs through automated doorways. Up to four racks per trip, with FIFO pickup queuing and priority overrides.
The system navigates around staff traffic and signals pickups and deliveries via voice and visual notifications. Operating constraints — 82-inch doorway height, 46-inch doorway width, 79-inch corridor, twenty-four-hour duty cycle — drove every dimension of the platform and top-module design.
Tray Delivery for Precision Assembly
A Tier-1 automotive manufacturer needed reliable tray delivery between staging and an automated assembly cell with a tight payload window and fixed pick-and-drop heights. BSE engineered a custom powered-lift top on an OTTO 100 base, total mass 130–150 kg with payload, with a 65 mm vertical stroke to match machine-side handoff.
Six tray variants, motion sequenced via ladder logic, full safety-rated guarding around the cell, and obstacle-aware navigation through an active manufacturing floor — delivered without compromising the AMR vendor’s warranty or safety certification.
Capabilities at a Glance
| Domain | What we deliver |
|---|---|
| Preferred platforms | OTTO Motors (100 / 600 / 1500) and FANUC robots; Omron, MiR, KUKA, Universal Robots integrated on request |
| Payload range | Up to ~1,500 kg depending on platform; custom tops engineered in-house |
| Top-modules | Powered lifts, conveyor tops, gripper / EOAT integrations, rack & tray carriers |
| Controls | Allen-Bradley PLC, custom HMIs, ladder logic, robot-side scripting |
| Communications | EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, Modbus TCP, OPC UA, REST APIs |
| Enterprise integration | Two-way LIS / PIMS / MES / SCADA, event historization |
| Safety standards | OSHA, ANSI/RIA R15.06, ISO 13849-1, IEC 60204, IEC 60073 |
| Operating envelope | 10–35 °C, 10–80 % RH, <80 dB designs available |
| Service | Designed for 1-hour critical-component swap by your maintenance team; full restoration within 24 hours; documented spares |
Talk to a Big Sky Engineer
Whether you’re scoping your first AMR pilot or scaling a fleet across a multi-building site, we’d like to hear about the constraints that have to be true at the end of the project. Send us your floor plan, your throughput target, and the parts of the workflow that have to keep running — we’ll tell you what’s feasible, what isn’t, and where AMR integration will earn its keep.