New ISO Standard Could Ease Multi-Vendor Robot Integration

ROBOT24.com -- More factories and warehouses use mobile robots for transporting materials and goods. The integration of robots of different brands can be costly and complicated due to varying communication systems.

To solve some of these problems, an international standard was developed, which regulates the communication of industrial mobile robots.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) issued ISO 21423:2026 in October. The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) announced the standard Nov. 2, describing the ways it can help the coordination of robots from various suppliers.

The standard establishes the requirements of data exchange between industrial mobile robots, fleet management system and other industrial equipment. These data concern the location, speed, direction, operational state, assigned task and availability of a robot.

Communication with factory management systems, production equipment and building infrastructure, such as elevators and doors, is also regulated by the standard.

More Supplier Options

For industrial users, the standard may affect their purchasing decisions since there will be no need to depend on a particular vendor for all the automation jobs.

A typical example is where a company uses robots from one vendor to transport the parts to the assembly line while using robots from another vendor to move the assembled products to storage.

In such a situation, if the robots do not have common communication systems, the two fleets of robots can only communicate through custom-made software or middleware.

Common communication requirements will eliminate the need for some of this effort, enabling firms to choose robots depending on their capabilities and not just because of compatibility with their current system.

The standard may also help system integrators who may save on costs due to standardized interfaces, though the cost savings have yet to be quantified.

Firms will be able to increase their robot fleet from other vendors easily if the robots can meet the communication requirements.

Benefits Through Adoption

On the other hand, ISO 21423 does not necessarily ensure that robots from different manufacturers are interoperable.

Robot manufacturers and fleet management software vendors must implement the standard, while system integrators still have to configure communication between the devices and manage workflows.

The standard also has limitations. It addresses communication but not navigation, collision detection or safety decision making. These capabilities still depend on other technical requirements and safety standards.

ISO 21423 is applicable in industrial environments, such as factories, warehouses and distribution centers. It does not cover consumer, military, medical and public road applications.

ISO 21423 is a standard that sets up an interoperability framework, but its commercial effect is unknown. A3 has not revealed how many manufacturers have implemented it and what commercial implementations exist using its requirements.