Crown Equipment Corporation has introduced the "Ai-Fork" vision guidance system for its RR5700 series reach trucks. In high-density warehouses, pallets are often stored with only 50mm of clearance between them. Operators must rely on muscle memory and small mirrors to align the forks with the pallet pockets, a process that takes several seconds of careful maneuvering. Misalignment results in the fork tips hitting the pallet stringers, splintering the wood or damaging the racking beams.
The Ai-Fork system uses a "Stereo Vision Camera" mounted on the carriage, aimed directly at the fork tips. The engineering innovation is the "Pallet Pocket AI Recognition Model." The system is trained to identify the dark openings of wood and plastic pallet pockets, regardless of lighting conditions or pallet color. When the operator drives the reach truck into the aisle, the camera detects the target pallet pockets up to 2 meters away.
As the operator pushes the "Enter" joystick forward, the system takes over the micro-positioning. It uses the "Proportional Side-Shift and Tilt Valves" to automatically align the fork tips perfectly with the pocket centers. If the forks are 30mm too high, the system automatically lowers the mast; if they are 15mm to the left, it side-shifts the carriage. The forks glide into the pallet smoothly without any physical contact with the wood. This automated entry system reduces pallet repair costs by 40% and decreases the time taken to pick a pallet from 8 seconds to 2.5 seconds, significantly boosting warehouse throughput.
