GE Healthcare selects Clearpath's self-driving OTTO for Wisconsin repair centre

Kitchener, Ontario’s Clearpath Robotics has announced that its OTTO self-driving material transport vehicle has been selected for use in a General Electric Healthcare repair facility currently under expansion near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
OTTO, which can handle loads of 3,300 pounds, and moves at a speed of 4.5 mph, doesn’t rely on external infrastructure for its navigation, taking a load off the complexities of warehouse management related to traditional material handling systems.
OTTO can be integrated directly with a warehouse manager’s existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software via the OTTO enterprise fleet management system.
“Clearpath’s OTTO self-driving vehicle and intelligent technology will help us serve our customers with speed, flexibility and accuracy, and gives us the ability to scale our operations going forward,” said Patricio Espinosa, director of Repair Operations for the Americas at GE Healthcare.
OTTO will be used to automate just-in-time parts delivery at the GE Healthcare facility, which is a Repair Operations Centre where medical equipment is repaired and tested, and which also recycles retired equipment, manages warranty service programs, and ships parts to the field.
“The OTTO fleet will optimize GE Healthcare’s just-in-time manufacturing process to help enable repair cells to operate at full capacity,” said Clearpath Robotics CEO Matt Rendall.
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Clearpath Robotics claims that customers can typically expect a return on investment in OTTO in 18-24 months, owing to reduced costs related to improved workplace throughput and flexibility of the material flow process.
Earlier this month, Tesla Motors co-founder Marc Tarpenning joined the Clearpath Robotics advisory board.
Last September, Clearpath introduced the first generation of its OTTO autonomous warehouse robot, announcing at the same time that GE Ventures had also become a strategic investor in the company.
Last March, Clearpath Robotics has closed a $14 million Series A fundraising round, led by New York-based RRE Ventures, along with iNovia Capital.
Clearpath Robotics recently showed off OTTO at MODEX 2016, “the greatest Supply Chain show on earth,” in Atlanta, Georgia.