While individual mobile robots might cost anywhere from $50,000 to $300,000,  the true expense of automation often lies in what happens after purchase: integration, training, and ongoing management across multiple robot brands.

Today's manufacturing facilities face a critical challenge that goes beyond the initial cost of robots. As factories add AGVs, AMRs, and other automation solutions from different vendors, they're discovering that the real complexity – and expense – comes from trying to make these systems work together effectively.

Beyond the Sticker Price: The Integration Tax 

The market offers robots across a wide price range – from $50,000 entry-level AGVs to $300,000+ specialized units. But these purchase prices tell only part of the story. Traditional integration approaches often require:

• Extensive system integration work, often costing $10,000-50,000+ per robot for additional hardware or highly custom software
• Weeks of specialized training for operators
• Ongoing maintenance costs across multiple systems
• Regular updates and patches for each separate fleet manager

This fragmentation isn't just inefficient – it's creating what we call the "integration tax," where companies pay premium prices for each new automation deployment, regardless of how many similar integrations they've done before..

The Interoperability Revolution

While initiatives like the VDA5050 and MassRobotics Interoperability Standard show promise for future robot collaboration, manufacturers need solutions today. This is where FleetGlue's approach transforms the economics of robot deployment:

• 66% reduction in integration costs through standardized deployment
• 75% reduction in post deployment errors
• Single, intuitive interface for controlling any robot brand, operators can get up to speed in half a day
• Unified training program with robust documentation and demo videos for all operators
• 0 downtime when adding new robots to existing fleets

Real World Impact

Consider a typical manufacturing facility adding their third or fourth robot brand. Traditionally, this would mean:

• New fleet management software
• Additional operator training
• Fresh integration work
• More maintenance contracts

With FleetGlue, that same facility can:

• Deploy new robots using existing configurations
• Let current operators control new robots immediately
• Integrate with existing systems seamlessly
• Manage everything through one interface

The Path Forward

As manufacturers continue to automate their operations, the ability to efficiently integrate and manage multi-brand robot fleets becomes crucial. The future belongs to solutions that can:

• Break down barriers between robot brands
• Eliminate redundant training and management systems
• Reduce reliance on expensive system integrators
• Enable rapid scaling of automation

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Ready to stop paying the integration tax on your robot fleet? Learn how FleetGlue can help you deploy and manage any mobile robot through a single, intuitive platform. Contact us to discover how we're helping manufacturers reduce integration costs by 66% while simplifying their automation journey.