The business departments of enterprises are deploying unmanned forklifts to offset the growing orders and the pressure of not getting enough skilled operators. Ironically, although enterprises need robots very much, it has been proved that robots need people.
A basic logic of the unmanned forklift is often ignored: it usually requires some degree of human supervision and assistance.
Even the unmanned forklift designed as a fully autonomous mode will encounter some specific handling tasks and abnormal situations, which need to be characterized by the support of human beings. In addition, the "dual mode" forklift can operate autonomously, and its design enables well-trained operators to board the equipment and use it to complete temporary tasks.
It is certain that the demand of enterprises for unmanned forklifts will reduce the demand for forklift operators. However, people will still play a role in many deployments of unmanned forklifts.
Founder of Vecna Robotics, an unmanned forklift supplier Daniel Theobold, co-founder of MassRobotics, an industry organization dedicated to interoperability of robotics, said: "Human beings and autonomous vehicles are closely connected in many ways. One way to think about this connection is to be a supervisor and a supervised person. Robots are smart, but they are not magic. They will need some help and supervision, just as human workers need help and supervision."
As part of its own solutions, Vecna provides software for fleet insight, as well as remote support and supervision services. Theobold said that the autonomous technology is mature, but it is meaningful for suppliers to establish remote support and exception handling mechanisms. Therefore, if unexpected problems occur, support personnel can quickly solve them.
Theobold said: "For exception handling, first of all, you must have a smart autonomous system that knows when it needs help. Then you need a system that allows the robot to get help very quickly."
In short, the operation needs more and more unmanned forklifts, but the independent fleet needs human support to work smoothly. In addition, more and more types and use cases of unmanned forklifts are emerging, some with dual mode operation. For an unmanned forklift truck fleet that has almost always operated in a fully autonomous mode, the role of the team leader may ultimately be played by the former forklift operator.
Special case handling
The supplier said that under ideal conditions, such as closed aisles, perfect loads and original pallets, the autonomy of unmanned forklifts works well, but the conditions are often not so ideal, leading to the need for online support and special handling.
Theobold said: "The key is to recognize that exceptions are special, and you need to be able to quickly resolve any problems to ensure the safety and reliability of the team."
Theobold said: "Human support personnel have cognitive skills and wisdom, which can help robots make good and safe decisions. The man in the loop approach is preferable to adjusting the autonomous platform to ignore inputs that are unlikely to become dangerous but may become actual hazards if completely ignored by the platform. The safest bet is to have someone help you solve the abnormal situation to keep the performance normal. "
Theobold said: "In fact, as long as robots complete their work and achieve the expected output, customers do not really care that the abnormal situation is solved in the robot's mind. It can be said that they are getting human help."
In practice, the degree of human participation in robot lift trucks is often a specific application, and may be affected by the degree of environmental control. Jim Gaskell, global automation and emerging technology director of Crown Equipment, pointed out that the company provides unmanned forklifts with dual mode functions.
Gaskell said: "The combination of automatic and manual operations depends to a large extent on the type and application of forklift trucks. Some applications are designed to isolate autonomous vehicles in the aisle or in a specific area of the warehouse, and manual operations are only used to handle interventions, such as product or vehicle exceptions. Other applications, such as automatic transportation, operate in a less structured environment, so vehicles are more likely to encounter situations that require manual intervention."
Gaskell said that CROW's "dual mode" tractor can transport a small car independently in most of the time and has high reliability. However, in up to 10% of the time, trained operators may drive the vehicle for various reasons, including bypassing unexpected obstacles or completing an unplanned delivery. Other reasons may include driving the tractor to a manual charging station, or to a maintenance area, or to any location it needs to reach that is not on its set route.
Gaskell said: "Although the dual mode forklift has the flexibility, in practice, most of the time, it can achieve autonomous operation, liberate the trained operators to perform other tasks, and obtain the maximum value from the autonomous fleet."
Gaskell said: "In a typical dual-mode forward moving forklift application, the manual operation of the vehicle is only to navigate to the charging station or maintenance area, or recover from the abnormality that causes the suspension of automatic operation of the vehicle. The manual operation involving pallet movement is avoided, so that almost 100% of its production time is in automatic mode."
Another human factor in the independence of forklifts is that the management manager of unmanned forklifts is often the former forklift operator, because they have personal experience of the pallet work process.
Gaskell said: "This new role provides a natural career path for existing forklift operators. Employees engaged in automatic guided vehicles must fully understand the operation and safety requirements related to automatic and manual operations. Therefore, existing forklift operators have a first chance. Existing operators will also have a good understanding of load quality and how pallets are stacked and loaded -- a key factor in successful implementation of automation."
More and more choices
In the field of independent forklift with low cost, some solutions are emerging to meet the automation requirements of temporary and low yield tasks.
For example, earlier this year, Vecna and Big Joe cooperated to launch Vecna CPJ, an independent pallet forklift. Big Joe has provided his own version of pallet elevator, which is called Big Joe "BUD".
The equipment is a cooperative or "cooperative robot pallet forklift" "The reason for this is that it can use Vecna's technology to operate in a fully autonomous mode, but it can also be manually operated when it is meaningful. Bill Pedriana, chief marketing officer of Big Joe, said that Big Joe is famous for traditional pallet forklifts, station mounted pallet forklifts and other forklift products. When designing pallet forklifts, autonomy was taken into account, and lithium batteries and other functions were added to facilitate charging, with a compact shape, The low fork part makes it easier to carry goods independently.
Pedriana said: "In general, the design of the cooperative robot pallet forklift filled an unmet demand: the independent pallet movement is small, usually a temporary task, and the front-line workers decide whether to start the task. If there is no independent pallet forklift, most operations will eventually let workers manually operate the traditional pallet forklift or station driven pallet forklift, which may consume a lot of labor time on the "journey": the time to move goods from point A to point B. "
Pedriana said: "Many work processes are accidental in nature! When someone determines that it is time to move it, goods can be moved. This may be a part request for maintenance activities on the other side of a facility, or moving WIP loads from one area to another, or moving padding, or moving empty pallet loads. We call it 'user oriented automation' because goods need to be moved as needed, which is decided by workers, but you prefer They are willing to let workers stay where they are and do tasks with higher added value. "
Pedriana said, "The task and destination of Vecna and Big Joe's autonomous pallet forklift can be configured in the software, without the need to integrate the cooperative robot into the warehouse management system. The integrated tablet on each robot can be used to select and start tasks once the task is established. With the application of robot as a service (RaaS) on these devices, the moderate monthly fee of cooperative robots opens the door to forklift autonomy for a wider range of use cases and market segments. "
He said: "Our initial equipment focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises, because it provides an approachable price point, which can be rewarded in these smaller, user guided workflows, or as a way to achieve low-speed and infrequent task automation in large, higher operations."
Shared autonomy
Third Wave Automation is another supplier of forklift automation solutions. It believes in the value of hybrid unmanned forklift trucks and supports remote monitoring and full remote operation of its forklifts. Matt Willis, the product leader of Third Wave Automation, said that under the concept of "shared autonomy" called by Third Wave, this is a "multi-mode" unmanned forklift method.
Willis explained that in this way, the unmanned forklift can almost always operate in the autonomous mode. Although using Third Wave's autonomous platform, humans in the logistics center can supervise many forklifts and intervene when the unmanned forklift encounters an accident. In a busy and dynamic warehouse, unexpected situations can be expected, so the autonomous platform should be ready to deal with this reality.
Willis said: "For example, what should we do when there is already a tray at the position where the unmanned forklift should be placed? The manual operator is good at solving such problems, so our method is to put people in the loop. In this way, if our unmanned forklift encounters a situation without a clear answer, the operator can quickly intervene and provide guidance, and as time goes by, the autonomous system will learn from it."
For its first unmanned forklift, such as a forward moving forklift, Third Wave Automation worked with Clark Material Handling to use one of their forward moving forklifts as a basis. Willis said that in most cases, the person managing the autonomous fleet will be in the same building as the forklift, but the person will be in the office.
Willis said, "We believe that remote monitoring of the fleet by experienced operators and management in case of abnormal conditions is the next step for humans and machines to jointly complete the warehouse task. You can combine the experience of your best operators with the ability of autonomous systems to achieve the level of performance and efficiency you seek."
Third Wave's autonomous forward moving forklift can be operated manually, either autonomously or using remote control technology to complete possible temporary tasks. However, Willis added: "By allowing one person to support the output of multiple autonomous devices, the autonomy of a forklift truck gains the greatest benefit."
He said: "In fact, our system gives the operator super power. One operator can now supervise and operate multiple forklifts at the same time, which was impossible on manually operated forklifts in the past."
High density automation
Martin Buena Franco, automation product marketing manager of The Raymond Corp, said that although there is human interaction between unmanned forklifts, including workers calling unmanned forklifts through call box communication, some unmanned forklifts have dual mode functions and fleet monitoring, the current trend of pallet movement in high-density storage areas is fully automatic and directly integrated into the warehouse management system.
For these high-density environments, Raymond provides its automatic transfer stacker and automatic forward moving forklift. Buena Franco explained that these systems are intended to be used in a fully automated mode, receiving instructions directly from the warehouse management system, and achieving maximum efficiency in very narrow aisles and high-density storage areas.
When the automatic stacker is on the aisle, it can obtain power from the electric mechanism on the track. Buena Franco added: "This means that 20% or more of the pallets move every day. The automatic forward moving forklift can move from one aisle to another independently without manual assistance."
Buena Franco said: "The trend of warehousing and storage is to go higher and have narrower aisles to achieve greater density and space efficiency. When you combine this with the pressure of other industries and the progress of independent technology and software, the pointer has moved more from the ground of the manufacturing or distribution center to the fully independent direction, entering a very narrow aisle storage warehouse."
Buena Franco said: "The applicability of unmanned forklifts depends on the order volume and the difficulty of finding operators on the site. However, he added that many two shift or three shift production industries have very narrow aisle layout and high headroom, which can benefit from fully autonomous forklifts. The improvement of efficiency and accuracy can be comparable to more expensive automatic pallet storage and retrieval systems."
Buena Franco said: "The automatic lift truck designed for a very narrow aisle environment is better integrated with the warehouse management system for deployment. In this way, the forklift can directly receive work orders from the warehouse management system and keep the physical inventory synchronized. Work orders can also be carried out in batches to further reduce the journey and time of independent execution. The bottom line is that a fully integrated system can potentially optimize operations."
