In recent years, as unmanned forklifts have been increasingly adopted across various industries, user demands have become more complex and diverse, expanding from standard scenarios to combined indoor-outdoor environments and mixed operations involving both workers and vehicles. In these settings, unmanned forklifts often encounter complex obstacles, irregular pallets, and material cages.

 

Enhancing the adaptability of forklifts to multi-scenario navigation and improving the stability of perception and obstacle avoidance have become major challenges for intelligent forklifts. With its strong sensing capabilities, LiDAR can support precise positioning and navigation, making it one of the preferred solutions for many forklift manufacturers.

 

Take Gen-Song Intelligence’s two counterbalanced forklift robots, the FMR series, as examples. By integrating Livox’s Mid-360 LiDAR, these robots can easily achieve precise insertion and handling of extra-wide pallets and irregular goods, as well as intelligent indoor and outdoor navigation and positioning.

   

Non-Standard Pallet Recognition

 

Unlike standard pallets, non-standard pallets have no fixed shape or size, making them much more difficult to identify.

 

The Mid-360 LiDAR features an ultra-wide 360° × 59° field of view, covering a wide range of scenarios and enabling easy detection of extra-wide pallets, large material cages, and other items. The FMR forklift robot can also accurately pick up two standard pallets placed side by side at the same time.

 

Mid-360 3s Integrated Point Cloud Effect

 

Thanks to the non-repetitive scanning pattern of the Mid-360, point cloud density increases over time. When identifying irregular pallets or goods, the system can outline the contours of the target, enabling precise insertion and handling. The FMR forklift robot can accurately pick up cylindrical items.

 

Cylindrical goods

 

Mid-360 3s Integrated Point Cloud Effect

 

Outdoor Intelligent Navigation and Positioning

 

Gen-Song Intelligence’s counterbalanced FMR utilizes advanced 3D SLAM technology and is equipped with the Mid-360 3D LiDAR, which offers a range of up to 70 meters (at 80% reflectivity). By recognizing the exterior walls of factory buildings, it acquires 3D point cloud data of the environment, enabling precise autonomous navigation and positioning.

 

Compared to vision-based solutions, the Mid-360 3D LiDAR is not affected by ambient lighting conditions, offering greater stability and reliability.

 

Mid-360 SLAM Mapping Results

 

The Livox Mid-360 LiDAR delivers high performance at a low cost, with exceptional adaptability to diverse scenarios. In the future, it will enable more industrial mobile robots to accurately perceive complex 3D environments, accelerating the intelligent transformation of logistics and warehousing.

 

Livox Technology Company Limited (Livox) is an independent company founded through DJI's internal incubation program and dedicated to the development of 3D lidar technology.

Livox was founded in 2016 with the resolve to break through technological barriers in the lidar industry and reduce the threshold for mass production by producing high-quality, reliable, and cost-efficient lidar sensors that can be applied in a wide range of fields, including the automotive industry, smart cities, surveying and mapping, and mobile robots.

Over the past few years, Livox has applied for 587 patents for its unique sensor designs and rotating mirror hybrid solid-state lidar technology. Since the Mid product series was rolled out in January 2019, Livox has served more than 1500 customers, from 26 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, China, Japan, and the European Union.