What Is an Automated Pallet Jack and How Does It Work?

Goods and material transportation is a critical link in the supply chain, encompassing warehousing, order fulfilment, and other processes. As a result, pallet trucks have naturally become an essential tool in all logistics distribution centres. Autonomous pallet trucks are emerging as a more efficient alternative to address this challenge. This intelligent material handling technology leverages the power of automation to enhance the efficiency of pallet loading, unloading, and transportation processes.

This new technology can move autonomously within distribution centres or warehouses. Unlike traditional pallet trucks, it does not require human assistance. As a result, your employees can free up time to focus on more complex tasks.

In this article, we will explain how autonomous pallet trucks work. We will also discuss their differences from non-autonomous pallet trucks and electric pallet trucks. You will learn about the advantages this intelligent technology brings to the workplace.

Ⅰ. What Is an AGV Automatic Pallet Truck?

What equipment moves pallets? Types of Pallet Trucks & How They Work

Pallet transport AGVs, also known as fork AGVs, are used to transport palletised goods in manufacturing and warehouse facilities.

Automatic pallet transport vehicles represent the natural evolution of internal material handling for businesses. They can help logistics companies automatically move inventory within warehouses. These pallet-moving robots are easy to deploy because they do not require any infrastructure modifications and can typically be integrated into your standard processes without any changes.

These machines are typically guided by a combination of sensors, cameras, laser scanners, and onboard navigation software, allowing them to move goods safely and efficiently.

An automatic pallet lift is an autonomous pallet handling vehicle capable of self-driving and navigation.

This AGV application allows for limited vertical movement of loads, enabling operations at lower heights or between floors to access pallets on shelves or racks.

These autonomous pallet robots are equipped with stabilisers or wheels beneath the forks.

These stabilisers can support part of the load, thereby reducing the size and weight of the AGV and decreasing the turning radius, resulting in excellent manoeuvrability.

On the other hand, due to these wheels or stabilisers, general automatic pallet trucks are only suitable for single-sided pallets. However, our APX pallet truck is a specially developed AGV automatic pallet truck designed for handling double-sided pallets.

Ⅱ. How Does an Automated Pallet Jack Work?

Automated pallet jacks rely on advanced technologies to operate. Here's a breakdown of how they work:

1. Navigation & Mapping

Most automated pallet jacks use LiDAR-based SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) or predefined maps to understand their surroundings. Some systems also integrate QR codes, magnetic strips, or visual markers on the floor.

2. Task Assignment

They receive instructions from a warehouse management system (WMS) or a fleet management platform. Tasks might include picking up pallets from storage, delivering them to packing stations, or transporting them to outbound docks.

3. Object Detection & Safety

Built-in obstacle detection sensors help the pallet jack detect and avoid people, forklifts, and static objects. Safety features such as emergency stop buttons, 360° visibility, and slow-down zones are standard.

4. Autonomous Lifting & Transport

Just like a manual pallet jack, the automated version lowers its forks, slides under the pallet, lifts it slightly, and begins autonomous navigation to the assigned destination.

Ⅲ. Automatic Pallet Trucks vs. Electric Pallet Trucks

1. Electric Pallet Trucks/Powered Pallet Trucks

Electric pallet trucks require human operation.

Although this does require assigning a staff member to operate them, they still offer advantages over traditional pallet trucks in other aspects.

2. Automatic Pallet Trucks

Automatic pallet trucks share many of the same advantages as electric pallet trucks.

However, they do not require manual operation or much supervision. This significantly frees up your human resources. Your team can work largely independently.

Additionally, you can add various additional features depending on the model of the pallet truck. For example, automatic charging functionality, which allows them to charge at appropriate times during the workflow, enabling 24/7 operation.

Ⅳ. Why Use Autonomous Pallet Trucks?

1. Reduce Labour Costs

Reduce reliance on manual labour for repetitive tasks. Employees are a valuable resource. You want to ensure that people with different skills can contribute more effectively to the business.

Training requires a significant investment of time and money. You certainly don't want to waste time on tedious manual tasks. Robotics can perform these tasks more effectively.

2. Improve Efficiency

Increasing productivity is a key objective for any fulfilment organisation. With automation, this goal becomes easier to achieve.

By using automated pallet trucks, companies can ensure material handling tasks are carried out as planned. They can operate 24/7 without interruption, minimising downtime.

3. Improve Safety

Automated pallet trucks reduce human error and workplace accidents.

4. Scalability

They can be easily integrated into existing workflows and scaled up as demand grows. Automated pallet trucks are autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). You can program them to follow specific paths within a facility.

Others can operate completely offline by marking routes. You can easily customise these routes to accommodate the unique layout of a distribution centre or warehouse.

5. Real-Time Data

Track material movement and performance metrics to drive continuous improvement. Some robots connect directly to the warehouse management system (WMS) via your network.

6. Manual Control

Many automated pallet trucks offer a hybrid setup that combines automated functionality with more traditional manual control features. Therefore, if workers need to manually correct the pallet truck, they can use the manual control device to operate it like a standard electric pallet truck.

Ⅴ. APX Pallet Trucks Dominate Pallet Handling

AiTEN APX pallet trucks have completely revolutionised internal pallet transport, capable of automatically detecting, transporting and delivering EU pallets weighing up to 2,000-3,000 kg at a speed of 1.5 metres per second. Its groundbreaking AI-based perception system sets it apart, significantly reducing pick-and-place cycles and boosting throughput.

This agile autonomous pallet handling vehicle can operate continuously and easily navigate narrow spaces, optimising logistics efficiency and ensuring timely pallet delivery without requiring additional infrastructure.

The AiTEN APx pallet handling robot complies with the latest safety standards and seamlessly integrates into various value streams, from warehouse operations to core production processes. With user-friendly software, deploying and managing this automated pallet handling robot is extremely simple, making it the perfect combination of precision, performance, and productivity.

This state-of-the-art robotic pallet handler combines intelligence, powerful performance, and industrial-grade quality to provide the automated pallet handling solution you’ve been waiting for.

Ⅵ. Conclusion

Automated pallet trucks are one of the inevitable trends in the supply chain towards smarter material handling. These highly innovative technological solutions enable warehouses to seamlessly integrate automation into their workflows and processes.

Automation not only makes material handling safer by eliminating any risk factors for employees but also significantly improves the efficiency and productivity of pallet truck operations.

This is not only due to the automated pallet trucks themselves but also to the better redistribution of human resources throughout the entire operational process.

These factors can all enhance your business and deliver significant cost savings.

Contact us to explore automated warehouse robots and how to minimize warehouse mistakes with their implementation to boost accuracy and ultimately improve customer satisfaction.