BY TOBY GOOLEY, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
FORKLIFTS MATERIALHANDLING
No longer a novelty, automated
and semi-automated forklifts are
making headway in warehouses
where human workers are in
short supply. Will they eventually
become the norm?
IN 2012, OUR ARTICLE “LEAVE THE (FORKLIFT) DRIVING TO
us?” reported on the driverless forklifts that were then beginning to
appear at trade shows, attracting both interest and skepticism. Eight
years later, these machines have moved beyond the novelty stage
and are increasingly being deployed in warehouses to supplement or
replace human lift-truck operators.
It’s unknown how many driverless (also
known as automated or robotic) forklifts
have been sold so far, but the list of companies that offer them is quickly growing.
(For a partial list, see the sidebar “Who
sells them?” in the online version of this
article.) It’s significant that some of the
world’s largest forklift OEMs, like Toyota,
Crown, Jungheinrich, Kion, Hyster,
Raymond, and Yale, are signing on; these
companies are innovators, but they don’t
commit resources to a new product unless
they’re confident there will be significant,
long-term demand. Other indicators that
the outlook for this equipment is strong
are acquisitions like Teradyne’s recent
purchase of the robotic forklift maker
AutoGuide Mobile Robots.
Many observers believe that automated forklifts are on the verge
of making significant headway in warehouse applications. Why are
driverless industrial trucks getting so much attention now? Who is
adopting and implementing them? And what do potential buyers need
to know before they make the leap?
POISED FOR A BREAKTHROUGH?
For the purposes of this article, we’re defining driverless/automated/
robotic forklifts as industrial trucks that are equipped with forks and
can do the following: transport, lift, lower, put away, and/or retrieve
loads, either in fully automated mode, without a human operator,
or in semi-automated mode, with a human operator working alongside them. These forklifts are a type of automated guided vehicle
Driverless
forklifts are
now a thing
