Arrow Electronics, along with its engineering services subsidiary eInfochips, has collaborated with STMicroelectronics (ST) to unveil a new industrial autonomous mobile robot (AMR) reference platform. The solution is designed to shorten the development cycle for professional service robots from initial concept to final deployment.
Autonomous mobile robots are increasingly utilized in factories, laboratories, warehouses and logistics centers. These machines must navigate dynamic environments, manage energy consumption and integrate advanced perception and artificial intelligence while meeting strict reliability and time-to-market requirements. The new platform aims to help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and integrators who often struggle to assemble and industrialize these complex subsystems independently.
The AMR kit is built on a complete ST bill of materials, integrated with an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano-based compute platform and NVIDIA ROS 2 software stack. Arrow and eInfochips provided the Rover mechanical platform and system integration expertise, while ST supplied industrial-grade components and reference designs.
Key features of the AMR reference kit include:
- Power Management — Robust battery management for 24V operation, with a pre-validated path to 48V architectures.
- Real-Time Control — An STM32-based controller board that interfaces between the NVIDIA platform and the robot's sensors and actuators.
- Motion Control — Advanced dual BLDC motor drives based on STSPIN32 and STDRIVE devices for precise navigation.
- Sensing Suite — ST MEMS IMUs, magnetometers and environmental sensors, complemented by lidar and vision inputs for SLAM-based mapping.
- Software Integration _ Industrial ROS 2 integration enabling mapping, localization and autonomous navigation using standard tools like Cartographer and NAV2.
The platform offers a pretested system-level design intended to reduce development risk and integration effort. Manufacturers can start with a working AMR including the chassis, electronics and software. They can then utilize engineering services from Arrow and eInfochips to customize mechanics and features while relying on ST for long-term product support for the bill of materials.
"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 of supplier management, global semiconductor at Arrow Electronics.
The cooperation is intended to help the AMR ecosystem move more quickly from prototype to production, delivering safer and more efficient mobile robots for global industrial environments.
"ST’s broad industrial portfolio is a natural fit for autonomous mobile robot applications, where reliability, performance and scalability are essential," said Allan Lagasca, application director of the robotics segment strategic program at STMicroelectronics. "By combining our technologies with Arrow’s engineering services, we are helping customers turn innovative robotic concepts into industrial-ready solutions."
