Making robotic movement of goods more 'pallet-able'

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(a) Simulation of pseudo-color coded image showing man (left) and pallet (right) where blue indicates objects near the AGV and red indicates things far away. (b) The corresponding 3-D point cloud view of the man and pallet. Points seen are less than ...
(a) Simulation of pseudo-color coded image showing man (left) and pallet (right) where blue indicates objects near the AGV and red indicates things far away. (b) The corresponding 3-D point cloud view of the man and pallet. Points seen are less than 3 meters away and lower than 10 meters in height from the sensor. Credit: NIST

Robots running amok and destroying property may be a staple in science fiction films, but they aren't welcome in factories, warehouses and other places where automatic guided vehicle (AGV) forklifts are used. Under a cooperative research and development agreement with Transbotics, a Charlotte, N.C., AGV manufacturer, the National Institute of Standards and Technology is developing advanced sensor processing and modeling algorithms to help robot forklifts verify the location and orientation of pallets laden with goods.


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