An automated guided vehicle is a mobile robot used to transport materials and goods within warehouses, factories, and distribution centers without human drivers. These vehicles follow predefined paths using technologies like lasers, magnetic strips, cameras, or GPS. Automated guided vehicles help improve efficiency, reduce labor costs, and increase safety by minimizing human involvement in repetitive transport tasks. They are commonly used in manufacturing, logistics, and large-scale industrial operations where consistent material flow is critical. As automation advances, AGVs are increasingly integrated with warehouse management and production systems.
JD.com founder Richard Liu said at the APEC China CEO Forum that robots will replace the company’s 700,000 delivery workers “sooner or later”, pairing the prediction with a retraining program called Nirvana that aims to move couriers into robot maintenance and AI training roles before automation arrives.
U.S. industrial robot installations grew 11% year-on-year to 38,000 units in 2025, according to the International Federation of Robotics, with food industry adoption surging 30% as the country climbs to eighth globally in robot density – still roughly ten times behind China’s annual installation pace.
NVIDIA has announced Halos for Robotics, the industry’s first full-stack safety architecture for physical AI systems, drawing on 18,600 engineering years of autonomous vehicle safety development, with Agility Robotics integrating it into Digit as the first commercial humanoid deployment.