Jungheinrich has introduced an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) spatial tracking ecosystem for its narrow aisle reach trucks, designed to mitigate the severe risk of collisions at blind rack intersections. In high-density, very narrow aisle (VNA) warehouses, operators frequently encounter blind corners where cross-aisle traffic is invisible until the last second. Standard radar or camera-based proximity sensors are often defeated by the metallic racking structure, generating false positives or missing fast-moving pedestrians entirely.
The Jungheinrich UWB system consists of ceiling-mounted anchor nodes spaced every 30 meters throughout the warehouse. Each reach truck is equipped with a UWB tag that pulses radio signals to the anchors. By calculating the time difference of arrival of these pulses, the system triangulates the exact X, Y, and Z coordinates of every truck in the facility to an accuracy of 15 centimeters, updating 100 times per second.
This precise spatial data is fed into the warehouse's central fleet management server, which then relays predictive collision warnings back to the individual trucks via a low-latency industrial Wi-Fi network. If the system calculates that two reach trucks are on a converging path toward a blind intersection, it dynamically intervenes. The server sends a command directly to the trucks' drive controllers, automatically limiting their maximum travel speed to 1.5 mph when they enter a 10-meter radius of the intersection.
Unlike physical sensors, the UWB system "sees" around corners. It also creates geofenced exclusion zones. If a reach truck approaches an aisle where maintenance personnel are working on the floor, the system automatically locks out the truck's travel function until the pedestrian clears the zone. By shifting collision avoidance from reactive onboard sensors to predictive, facility-wide spatial intelligence, Jungheinrich is drastically reducing both equipment damage and workplace injuries in high-speed logistics environments.
