Network-based distributed approach for implementation of an unmanned autonomous forklift

Unmanned autonomous forklifts have a great potential to enhance the productivity of material handling in variousapplications because these forklifts can pick up and deliver loads without an operator and any fixed guide. There are, however, manytechnical difficulties in developing such forklifts including localization, map building, sensor fusion, control and so on.Implementation, which is often neglected, is one of practical issues in developing such an autonomous device. This is because thesystem requires numerous sensors, actuators, and controllers that need to be connected with each other, and the number ofconnections grows very rapidly as the number of devices grows. Another requirement on the integration is that the system shouldallow changes in the system design so that modification and addition of system components can be accommodated without too mucheffort. This paper presents a network-based distributed approach where system components are connected to a shared CAN network,and control functions are divided into small tasks that are distributed over a number of microcontrollers with a limited computingcapacity. This approach is successfully applied to develop an unmanned forklift. © ICROS 2010.