FORKLIFTS | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


AUTOMATED LIFT-OFF


Artificial intelligence is increasingly employed to automate forklifts in warehouse environments.


Jack Carfrae hears from the specialists behind the tech. “


development at Cyngn. “You can’t just load 2,000lbs of wood onto a little wooden pallet, so they actually bundle the wood together with, like, 3x4s or 4x4s underneath, and effectively create pallets.” He is describing the situation facing Chilean wood conglomerate Arauco, which was looking to automate its forklifts. It hit


O


ne of their biggest concerns was that they have non- standard pallets,” says Ben Landen, VP of business


a technological wall, because the average computer vision algorithm is designed for conventional pallets, rendering its offbeat versions impossible for run-of-the-mill systems to recognise. California-based Cyngn specialises in


automated materials handling vehicles, although it is very much at the tech end of things. The vehicles themselves are constructed by manufacturer partners, while its forte is what Landen refers to as “vehicle agnostic” automation systems,


xiv | November 2023 | Overhead Crane Material Handling Industry Supplement


of which artificial intelligence forms a significant part. Its latest project is the Autonomous


Forklift, which sees Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD’s hardware paired with Cyngn’s DriveMod automated and AI-based system. It took the same kind of technology behind autonomous road-going vehicles and dropped it into off-highway applications, the theory being it was a much more instantaneous environment for practical application than heavily regulated


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