Meili Robots and NODE Robotics Announce Partnership to Eliminate the "Manual Blind Spot" in Universal Fleet Management
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, March 11, 2026 – Meili Robots, provider of universal fleet management system Meili FMS, has officially partnered with NODE Robotics to bridge the critical gap between automated and manual intralogistics.
In the modern warehouse, a "digital wall" has long divided operations. On one side, high-tech Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) move with surgical precision, tracked and orchestrated by sophisticated software. On the other side, manual forklifts, tugger trains, and human-operated vehicles—the backbone of most global logistics—remain "invisible" to the digital ecosystem.
Today, Meili Robots and NODE Robotics are officially tearing down that wall.
Through a strategic partnership, the companies have integrated NODE.tracking—a high-precision, LiDAR-based Real-Time Localisation System (RTLS)—directly into Meili FMS (Fleet Management System). This collaboration allows facility managers to monitor and coordinate manual vehicles alongside their robotic counterparts within a single, unified interface.
The Challenge: Solving the "Manual Blind Spot"
Despite the rapid rise of automation, the reality of "Brownfield" sites—existing warehouses and factories—is that they will remain hybrid environments for the foreseeable future. A mix of automated and manual traffic is the standard, not the exception.
The problem? Most fleet management systems are blind to manual assets. This lack of visibility leads to:
Costly Bottlenecks: Robots stopping or rerouting because they cannot predict the movement of a manual forklift.
Safety Risks: Increased potential for near-misses in high-traffic intersections.
Operational Inefficiency: A fragmented view of the floor, requiring managers to jump between different systems or rely on manual observation.
The Solution: Precision Tracking Meets Universal Orchestration
By integrating NODE.tracking, Meili FMS gains access to industrial-proven localisation data. NODE’s technology uses LiDAR sensors to achieve high-precision localisation without the need for expensive infrastructure like floor markers or reflectors.
"NODE Robotics provides a strong navigation and tracking technology that will enhance the coordination of the automated and manually driven fleets," says Aldus von der Burg, Founder and CEO of Meili Robots. "We see strong potential to solve a magnitude of pain points currently faced at brownfield sites introducing automation to their floors. Our goal with Meili FMS has always been universality; by adding manual vehicle tracking, we are one step closer to a truly holistic 'Control Tower' for intralogistics."
How the Integration Works
The synergy between the two platforms is built on the VDA 5050 standard, ensuring a seamless "handshake" between NODE’s localisation stack and Meili Robots’s orchestration layer.
Localisation: NODE.tracking is mounted on a manual vehicle, instantly turning it into a "smart asset."
Communication: Position data is fed in real-time to the Meili FMS.
Visualisation & Control: The manual vehicle appears on the Meili FMS map. The system can then optimise robot paths, provide traffic alerts, and ensure that the entire fleet—manual and automated—moves as one cohesive unit.
"NODE.tracking brings precise, LiDAR-based localization to manual vehicles and makes their positions available within fleet management systems like Meili FMS," says Ali Rahmati, Chief Sales Officer at NODE Robotics. “This integration helps close an important visibility gap in facilities where automated fleets are already coordinated digitally, but manual vehicles remain outside these systems. Together with Meili, we are enabling a more transparent and coordinated mixed-fleet environment.”
A Future-Proof Foundation
Beyond immediate safety and efficiency gains, this partnership offers a unique Code License model from Meili Robots. This allows enterprise clients to deeply integrate this combined power into their own proprietary tech stacks, ensuring that as their fleet grows, their software grows with them.
For companies navigating the transition from manual labor to full automation, the Meili-NODE partnership provides a "best-of-both-worlds" bridge. It ensures that today’s manual assets are part of tomorrow’s digital transformation.
About Meili Robots
Meili Robots is the provider of Meili FMS, an advanced software solution for mobile robot fleet management, enabling enterprises to unify and orchestrate diverse robot types from a single platform. Dedicated to maximising operational efficiency, improving visibility, and accelerating automation adoption, Meili Robots provides the essential software layer for modern logistics, manufacturing, and warehousing operations.
The core challenge in today's automated landscape is interoperability. Meili Robots addresses this by providing a vendor-agnostic layer that seamlessly integrates AMRs from multiple manufacturers. This approach eliminates fragmentation, allowing organisations to avoid vendor lock-in and flexibly scale their operations by choosing the best robot for each specific task.
About NODE Robotics
Efficient operations and growth depend on solutions that simplify mobile robotics. NODE Robotics develops reliable, flexible, and seamlessly integrable software that eliminates the limitations of conventional intralogistics systems. With NODE’s proven software for localisation, navigation, and fleet management, businesses reduce downtime, streamline processes, and achieve measurable success with their mixed fleets. NODE Robotics makes mobile robots easy to use.
For more information, visit www.meilirobots.com and node-robotics.com.
Media Contact
Michelle Schlechtriem
Marketing Specialist
michelle@meilirobots.com
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