AI’s Impact on Forklift Safety

Artificial Intelligence, AI, is making its way into the safety industry. In the past 6 months, Safety and Health magazine wrote two articles on the topic, one in December, and the other in June, both articles focusing on how the AI technology can potentially mitigate risk. AI technology will continue to make its way into various areas of the industrial facility, but let’s not forget that there are areas where AI has already made an impact on safety. Forklift safety.

Forklift Safety and Technology

The reason AI technology continues to grow in popularity is the slow to success the industry has had on forklift safety. From the rudimentary flashing blue lights and honking horns, these techniques have been helpful, but have not stopped impacts, injuries and fatalities from occurring. Technology began to make its way with the use of RFID tags. Great idea for its time, mitigates some of the risk, but too many factors involved can skew the results. Here’s a simple example: a pedestrian needs to enter the manufacturing facility in order to complete a task. Since they will only be in the facility for a few minutes, the pedestrian decides not to wear the badge, regardless of the rules mandated by the company. Degrees of risk continues to exist even with RFID technology.

Let’s see what it sees. The beauty of AI technology is that it gets smarter with experience. It gathers data with sensor(s) located on the forklift and scans every 60ms around the forklift detecting people, objects, or any other obstructions. With every incident such as near misses, impacts of any G force value, hard stops, or even failed forklift inspections, it’s tracking the forklift safety data into an online Dashboard. No wearable devices, tape on the floor or detection devices mounted onto the racks or poles are needed.

What is an Online Dashboard?

The AI technology captures the movements…what’s occurring with the forklift. It takes the near miss, hitting the brakes too hard, impacting another piece of equipment, and communicating that information real-time into an online Dashboard. When you view the Dashboard, you’ll be able to view critical information in a graphical manner so you can make fast, impactful decisions.The AI technology differentiates between a near miss and a hard brake. It knows how to measure G force and report to you when it exceeds your pre-defined threshold. This is the result AI technology can give about forklift safety so you can make decisions such as: where are the near misses occurring? Is it the same person? Do they need training? Where are the impacts occurring? How often are 3G and above occurring? Where? Who? When you have information, decisions about forklift safety become easier and more accurate.