Running an AGV Order Manager on Serverless β€” A Dream I Once Had

M

Mohammed Ismaeel

Guest
A few years ago, I worked at company, back then, I often thought about how much better things could be if we reimagined the way Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) order management systems were delivered. This article isn’t about what that company (or anyone else) is doing today β€” it’s simply an idea I had at the time. A dream, if you will. Technology moves fast, so I can’t guarantee how things are done nowadays. But I still believe the core thought is worth sharing.

The Background β€” How It’s Usually Done

In most warehouses today, if you want to run an AGV order manager, you typically:

  • Allocate a dedicated server on the customer site.
  • Perform a manual installation of the AGV management software.
  • Configure the system to talk with the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and the AGV fleet.

This comes with its own headaches:

  • Hardware compatibility issues.
  • Complex upgrades (every site needs to be patched manually).
  • Limited scalability (you size hardware upfront and hope it’s enough).
  • High dependency on the customer’s IT environment.

The Dream β€” What If It Were Serverless?

What if, instead of on-premise servers, the AGV Order Manager (OM) lived as a serverless service in the cloud? Imagine an architecture where:

  • WMS systems call a simple API (e.g., /orders) to create or update orders.
  • The Order Manager validates, persists, and schedules these tasks.
  • AGVs receive assignments via a managed queue or IoT messaging channel.
  • AGVs report back their status through lightweight callbacks (/agv/status).
  • The system automatically scales with demand β€” no servers to patch, no hardware sizing.

In this world, observability, resilience, and security are built-in:

  • Orders and statuses flow through event-driven pipelines.
  • Dead-letter queues and retries make the system self-healing.
  • Metrics and alerts provide real-time operational insight.
  • Security is managed via IAM, encryption, and signed requests.

Why It Matters

The value of this approach is not in the technical novelty, but in what it unlocks for operations:

  • Faster deployments β€” rolling out a new site is about configuration, not hardware.
  • Continuous improvements β€” features can be shipped centrally without manual upgrades.
  • Global scalability β€” from one small warehouse to a massive distribution hub.
  • Lower cost of ownership β€” no more maintaining on-prem servers for every customer.

The Realities

Of course, reality is more nuanced. Many sites still require local installations due to network constraints, safety requirements, or vendor lock-in. Latency expectations, certification processes, and customer IT policies all play a role. But the dream was always about reducing friction and making AGV systems easier to run and evolve.

Closing Thoughts

Back when I was working with AGVs, this was just a dream: an AGV Order Manager powered by serverless technologies. I don’t know how things are done today, but I still think this vision has merit. The warehouse floor doesn’t care if the order manager is running on a rack-mounted server or in a Lambda function β€” what matters is reliability, safety, and speed. And serverless offers an exciting path toward that future.

Would you build an AGV OM system this way? Or do you think on-prem will always be the safer bet for mission-critical warehouse automation?

Continue reading...
 


Join 𝕋𝕄𝕋 on Telegram
Channel PREVIEW:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top