An Autonomous Forklift with 3D Time-of-Flight Camera-Based Localization and Navigation

In this paper we present an autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) based on a forklift. While centralized transport systems are widely used in the industry, these systems are expensive to set up and inflexible with regard to changes in the schedule. We in contrast investigate an approach that uses a decentralized autonomous forklift that uses a 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF) camera as its navigation sensor and is not dependent on artificial visual landmarks. The capability to process transport orders and maneuver in confined space with the required accuracy has been successfully tested in two warehouse environments.