Forklift of the Future

Here's a futuristic forklift designed to be completely remote-operated and battery powered.

I'm from Scripps Ranch High School and this is my entry for the Envision the Future of the Lift Truck Student Design Contest.

When we think of a futuristic forklift, we often tend think of something minimalistic and smooth (like many renderings of futuristic vehicles) or something with nice to have features like external cameras or nicer controls. But I would like to rethink the forklift from the ground up.

A futuristic forklift would be one that is:

• Controlled remotely, through VR or automated computer programs.
• Since automated computer programs are hard to develop, VR or a 3d simulation is a more practical solution for now.
• Super simple and intuitive to control
• By making it controlled remotely, the probability of injury to the human user is greatly reduced.
• Able to manipulate multiple objects at once.
• Powered by a rechargeable electric battery.
• Solar power is a bonus, especially on the moon or Mercury.
• Able to sense its environment and automatically prevent collisions, with manual override.
• Able to manipulate a heavy load without tipping over or being unable to move (wheels need high torque).

So with that in mind, let's sketch what a driverless forklift looks like!

The main things to note here are:

• The forklift has arms on all four sides, but each side is retractable except for one side. The non retractable side is called the "front" and is able to handle the max load of the vehicle since it does not have that vulnerable joint.
• The joints are still powerful and improve the multitasking ability of the forklift.
• The whole core of the forklift is a giant battery + computer; there is no place for the driver. The forklift is intended to be operated remotely 100% of the time, which increases driver safety.
• There is a strip of cameras going all the way around the robot, which is used for the VR / 3d simulation.

Now, in order to turn my design into something clear and easy to understand (as well as perhaps 3d print a model of later), I took my design to Fusion 360 to model the essential visible features. We can model the core, the camera strip, the arms, and the wheels. The exterior of the forklift is remarkably simple, which matches the relative simplicity of the task we are accomplishing: lifting and moving items.

Here are the final renderings! I hope this showed you another way of looking at machines; if we are going to make them autonomous, there is no need to waste space for the driver. With this, we get even more battery space and increased driver safety.

Thanks!