ON THE SHOW FLOOR

autonomously pick from racking up to 10m tall. It can handle most totes sizes and types, even cardboard boxes, on standard industry shelving structures.

MHI startup award sSy.ai was the winner of the 2023 MHI startup award. This award was chosen by ProMat attendees during the first three days of the event. sSy.ai uses AI and machine learning to transform standard cameras into sensors. Besides object recognition, this technology allows the extraction of data such as indoor tracking, distance or speed of any asset or object in the warehouse.

Yale lift trucks made a big announcement at the show, changing its branding to Yale Lift Truck Technologies.

“Warehouses face a tough outlook, with persistent labour challenges threatening productivity and risking safety incidents. But when operations look to suppliers for help, they’re met with complacency and rigid terms based on what’s best for the factory – not the needs of modern warehouses,” said David Furman, president, marketing, strategy and business development, Yale. “We think it’s time warehouse operations rethink what they expect from lift trucks, technology and suppliers. That’s why we’ve invested in a more creative approach built around the customer, engineering lift trucks as smart technology foundations and bringing innovations to market, faster.”

The company also announced broader availability of its safety technology, Yale Reliant. The company has added the proximity and stability technology to 13 models. Electric counterbalanced trucks in the 3,000-12,000-pound capacity ranges, and the company’s very narrow aisle (VNA) turret truck and enclosed end rider join the five other core warehouse models available with the operator assistance technology, which first launched in 2021 and won recognition as a product of the year. The company demonstrated the stability and pedestrian detection functions in a dedicated booth at the show.

Otto Motors unveiled its newest autonomous mobile robot (AMR), Otto 600, a “Goldilocks platform” fitting in the middle of its range according to Dave Northup, the company’s director of product management, who demonstrated it at the show. The Otto 600 can move pallets, carts and other payloads up to 600 kg. The company has also updated its operating software so that it conforms to AGV standard VDA5050, which allows for interoperability with other brands of AMR. Otto Motors is the first AMR vendor to support the standard, letting customers manage dissimilar types of material handling solutions from a third-party master controller interface.