Design of an intuitive control concept for lifting operations using the example of forklifts

Abstract

Because of their flexibility, forklifts are still one of the most popular transport vehicles used in intralogistics. In practice, the lack of knowledge in handling forklifts leads to a high safety risk and lower handling performance. The paper presents a new control paradigm, which reduces the training period for new employees and the occurrence of user errors. The described paradigm designs a control, which reacts in accordance with the operator’s expectations. A survey was conducted to compare the different motion designs in the categories of ergonomics, intuitiveness and controllability. The test persons perceived the new control paradigms as more intuitive than a state-of-the-art control. The results do not show any significant difference with regard to the order of the test sequences or previous experience in handling forklifts. Subsequently, inexperienced and experienced forklift operators benefit from the new control paradigm.