Autonomous Pallet Jack Project – An Ongoing Robotics Project

Projects
1

Hello everyone,

I would like to share my current project: the development of an autonomous pallet jack, with the goal of exploring how robotics and autonomous navigation can be applied to pallet handling and material transport.

The project is currently under development, and I am documenting its progress, design choices and technical aspects on my blog.

Project page:

I am sharing this project here to connect with the robotics community, exchange ideas and learn from people working on autonomous mobile robots, navigation, perception and industrial automation.

I would be particularly interested in feedback and discussions about the technical challenges involved in developing this type of mobile robot.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to exchanging ideas with the community!

2

The stack choice is interesting — ROS 2 Humble with Nav2 plus micro-ROS on a Teensy splits the heavy navigation work from the real-time motor and sensor loop, which seems sensible for a pallet jack where wheel control timing matters. What I’d be curious about is how you handle localization in a warehouse aisle, since racking tends to play badly with 2D lidar scans and wheel odometry alone can drift with a loaded jack. Also wondering how you’re approaching safety and e-stop behavior during development. Documenting the design choices as you go is genuinely useful for others attempting similar material transport builds.