Object and pedestrian detection warehouse safety solutions evolve

Object and pedestrian detection and avoidance solutions help warehouses increase and improve the level of safety when materials handling equipment is involved. These types of solutions and safety protocols have always existed, but as the warehouse—and the equipment and people inside—has changed over the last few years, the demands required from these solutions have become greater.

Warehouses and distribution centers are busy and complex places. The people who work in these facilities and operate the equipment are intertwined with an increasingly complex fleet of materials handling equipment—from lift trucks, tuggers and carts to automatic guided vehicles (AGV) and autonomous mobile robots (AMR).

Add to this an influx of a younger, less experienced workforce and often outdated safety protocols, and it creates an even greater risk for more injuries, damage and accidents. A recent report published by OSHA supports these claims, finding that most of the existing safety technologies used today are not creating a significant increase in safety.

“It’s kind of plateaued,” says Ram Kumar, chief revenue officer at Siera.AI. “Using safety lights, blue lights, red lights, this that, or even markings on the floor, are not resulting in any improvement. We’re kind of hitting the flat base here, so we need to actually get to the next peak, and we may have to try something newer.”

Kumar adds that OSHA has even gone so far as to say the next time an accident happens, they’re going to question whether you really looked at new technology or improving safety protocols.

“This forced Gartner… to sort of predict that by 2027 most facilities, at least half of them, will move to some form of an AI vision-enabled forklift safety solution or powered industrial vehicle safety solution,” says Kumar.

Beyond meeting these regulatory guidelines, prioritizing safety in the warehouse just makes good sense. A safer workplace makes for happier employers and can improve employee retention. Object and pedestrian detection and avoidance solutions can also reduce maintenance costs and increase productivity.

“Safety is obviously a priority for many, if not all, businesses, as is productivity,” says Mark Stanton, president and general manager, North America at ELOKON. “Trying to find that balance of being as productive as possible, but not introducing unsafe operations is really a challenge. Companies are actually really looking at, ‘How can I be productive and safe, and where is that balance point?’”

Implementing a modern object and pedestrian detection and avoidance solution creates an opportunity for companies to strike that balance.

Warehouses are changing

As warehouses get taller and aisles get narrower, lift truck operators are at greater risk of being injured. In a warehouse with very narrow aisles and huge amounts of product are being stored in as condensed area as possible, lift truck operators work at varying levels often unable to see what’s going on above and below them.

Object and pedestrian detection and avoidance solutions are designed for these situations, acting as an operator’s eyes and ears and sounding an alert if there is something or someone in the same aisle within a certain distance. Depending on the environment and the technology, the truck can be slowed down or even brought gently to a full stop.

“We’re trying to give the operator or operators and all the pedestrians in that environment as much information and notification that something or somebody is in close proximity, and to absolutely try and minimize the likelihood of an incident,” says Stanton.

In addition to changes in their footprint, warehouses have become more congested with vehicles. A warehouse may have anywhere from 50 to 500 fork trucks, tuggers and other materials handling equipment, as well as AGVs or AMRs. When you start mixing a combination of automated vehicles with a non-automated operation or standard DC, Stanton says the likelihood of an incident tends to increase.

“These AGVs are doing their thing, but there’s nobody sitting on them looking around, making sure it’s safe to operate,” says Stanton. “The interaction between automated technology and the manual technology can lend itself to be an environment that needs to improve the safety, not necessarily because of people, but because of the equipment colliding and getting in the way of each other.”

Managing these facilities without some type of detection system is particularly challenging because it can be difficult to know how many people, teams, or vehicles are operating at a time and in a particular location.

“When they try to optimize the workflow to be more efficient and productive, they fail because they don’t know where those things are, how much they are being used or how much they’re sitting,” says Marina Magnabosco, director of product management at Slamcore. “It’s about increasing efficiency, but they can’t do it if they don’t have visibility over what’s actually happening.”

While various solutions can help fleet managers gain this visibility, Slamcore uses a vision-based localization technology that provides real-time vehicle tracking and object detection.

“We can not only detect if there is something in the way of the forklift, but we can also classify what it is,” says Magnabosco, explaining that if you have a person nearby you probably want to stop the truck all together, whereas if it’s only a pallet in the way, you might just need to slow down.

Similarly, Siera.AI uses a vision-enabled system and generative AI to collect data and understand what it is seeing. This allows the system to issue the correct alert for both the pedestrian and operator, who can then take corrective action.

“Most of our solutions use two cameras—one in front, one in the back—in the direction of movement to the forklift, such that at any point of time, if there’s anything that comes in the way we can detect whether it’s a human or an object,” says Kumar. “This is where we collect the vision data, and then we apply machine language algorithms to it to infer based on the pattern that it sees.”

This data can also be used to take proactive steps about the safety of the facility. It allows fleet managers to see which areas are safe and which are maybe hot spots for accidents and need correction.

Other common solutions use technologies such as ultra-wide band (UWB) or LIDAR (light detection and sensing, like radar), which send signals across a warehouse’s fleet to inform operators that another person, vehicle or object is close to them. UWB uses RFID tags and requires the installation of different infrastructure throughout your warehouse.

This can be cost prohibitive, but the technology is also incredibly accurate and reliable. LiDAR is sometimes seen as a more cost-effective solution, but it’s often installed during the manufacturing of a vehicle and cannot typically be retrofitted. It is a great solution for those who do not frequently upgrade their fleet.

Keep maintenance to a minimum

Another bonus to a safer workplace is reduced maintenance costs and higher operational efficiency.

“If you can reduce the number of incidents down to zero, or close to it, the maintenance, the repair costs, the impact to operational efficiency, all of those things are significantly improved,” says Stanton.

For example, the cost of a lift truck hitting another lift truck could cause upward of $20,000 in repairs—and that’s not even including the possible injuries to the operators.

“Equally important, those fork trucks are not in the operation, so you’ve got to take them out of use, which means that you’re now pushing the other equipment in that facility to do more, which affects the productivity you get,” says Stanton. “The ripple effect could be very significant.”

Creating a more attractive work environment

Implementing solutions in your warehouse that show your commitment to safety is an important part of creating a great workplace culture that attracts and retains quality employees.

No one wants to work somewhere they don’t feel like safety is a No. 1 priority, and with warehouse jobs in abundance, they don’t have to.

“Being a company that takes the safety of their employees very, very seriously can help you encourage people to come into the business,” says Stanton. “Not only are you not losing as many people, you’re likely to get better people coming through the door wanting to work for you.”

Operating a lift truck is also a challenging job. From constantly checking blind spots and the areas around them to operating old, non-ergonomic equipment, the daily workload can be cumbersome. Finding ways to reduce this workload and make it easier to navigate the warehouse is a big draw for new hires.

“There are not enough new drivers coming in the market, so it’s a job that you really want to keep and make it easier, make it safer,” says Magnabosco.

She adds that while the ultimate goal of object detection systems may be to remove workplace accidents, making the job easier by reducing the load on the driver innately increases safety.

From Magnabosco’s viewpoint, she envisions a future where these types of advanced sensors and cameras will be automatically integrated from the start when you buy a lift truck.

“Talking to our partners and customers, we know that that’s where the industry is heading,” she says. “To actually have this stuff as standard, not as a second thought. Safety comes first, reducing accidents and making the job of these people easier, it’s a priority.”