Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 54 No. 1 (March 2017)17Telematics Service for Forklift Trucks

M i ts u b i s h i N i c h i y u F o r k l i ft C o . , L td .

Since the beginning of 1990, Mitsubishi Nichiyu Forklift Co., Ltd. (hereafter, our company)
has marketed products that manage various data of the operation instructions and actual operational
performance of cargo handling/transfer, as well as the operational status of forklift trucks, using
personal computers.
These products enable information to be exchanged between forklift trucks and the office via
radio communication. To provide cutting-edge forklift/logistics systems is our company's mission,
and we have made efforts to establish a forklift solution adopting new technologies such as IoT tocontribute to the development of the logistics industry.

|1. Introduction
With the evolution of computer systems and the reduction of infrastructure andcommunication costs, a market environment in which products with new value can be adopted
more easily than ever before is growing. Automated operation technologies for automobiles beganwith automated operation of agricultural machinery, which is now changing the form that industrialvehicles take. Efforts toward IoT technologies in various industries are becoming increasingly
active, and new products are in demand beyond transnational borders. Based on the expertise wecultivated so far, our company aims at "realizing a forklift solution" that is one step ahead of ourcompetitors.

|2. Forklift operational management system product for the domesticmarket
In the IoT concept for forklift trucks, our company has made efforts to visualize theoperational status through the application of mobile communication technologies ahead of otherindustries since the beginning of 1990.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. commercialized the truck management system (TMS) for
managing the operational status of forklift trucks at the beginning of 2000 (Figure 1).
It was an epoch-making product that enabled the comprehensive operation of forklift trucks
to be displayed by collecting CAN (Controller Area Network) data. This data includes the control
information of forklift trucks for the collection of data on safe operations, economic efficiency andoperation rate, and realizing "visualization" over the Internet. TMS was a pioneer of our company's
IoT business toward the improvement of the physical distribution systems of customers.
The former Nippon Yusoki Co., Ltd. commercialized a wireless LAN system for forklift
trucks (Figure 2) in the 1990s and made efforts towards inventory control and warehousing anddelivery management systems. Moreover, the company worked on IT logistics (Figure 3) toward
the visualization of the operational status by linkage with CAN data, association with cargohandling operations and the realization of safe operations.
- Wireless real-time information exchange between office and forklift trucks (inventorycontrol and warehousing/delivery system)- Establishment of warehousing management system in connection with production systemand order acceptance system

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 54 No. 1 (March 2017)18- An RFID or camera is installed on forklift trucks to decrease operations by workers(eliminate errors) in cargo handling work (automatic detection of cargo handling location,
automatic reading of pallet information), etc.

Figure 1

Truck management system (TMS)

Collectively managing actuation, movement and operation
using vehicle-mounted controller

Figure 3

Figure 2

Wireless LAN system

Constituting a system with forklift-mountedterminals

IT logistics|3. Products for overseasOur company provides the telematics service under the trade names of Abbot in Europe andLiftlink in North America.
This chapter introduces the service under the trade name of Liftlink, which has been providedby MCFA (Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America), our base in North America, since the end of2014.
This service is one of the services that MCFA provides to dealers (distributors), and it ischaracterized by the fact that its main targets are dealers and service technicians. The number ofconnected vehicles has been increasing steadily since the start of the service, and at the time whenabout 1.5 years had passed, more than 3,000 vehicles had been connected. An outline of the system
configuration and the service are described below.

3.1 System configuration
The Liftlink system is composed of a "vehicle-mounted unit," a "data server" and a "Webscreen," as is the case with general telematics systems.
(1) Vehicle-mounted unit
The operator's operating information, vehicle status (engine speed, cooling watertemperature, motor RPMs, error information, etc.) and GPS information are collected at set
intervals and transmitted to the server via the mobile telephone network.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 54 No. 1 (March 2017)
19(2)Data server
Data from the vehicle-mounted units is accumulated and extracted upon request on theWeb screen.
(3) Web screen
Data is extracted from the data server through the browser, and a live display or analysis
display is provided.

3.2 Outline of the service
Forklift trucks managed by dealers are scattered all over vast countries, which is a situation
specific to North America, and it is difficult to provide service by frequently making rounds, andservice technicians cover wide areas according to their own expertise.
When any problems occur, service technicians prepare replacement parts based on phone
calls or e-mails from users and visit them. But it is not uncommon for inaccurate information to begiven and it takes one day to make a return trip just for an inspection. In the event of a problem, anerror code is displayed on the vehicle's meter panel, but the user may provide the wrong
information or make a mistake in reading the code.
To solve these problems, Liftlink provides the following functions:(1) Dashboard
A summary of the major data is displayed by arranging items like tiles as shown in
Figure 4. The contents to be displayed, the size and the layout can be customized by each user.
(2) Home screen
The locations, number and states of forklift trucks can be viewed from above and eachforklift truck is displayed as a round pin on a map. A normal state is indicated in green and anabnormal state is indicated in red. By clicking each round pin, the major data can beunderstood. (Figure 5)

Figure 4

Dashboard

Figure 5Example of display on Home screen(3)

Alert Management
Currently occurring errors and the error history can be checked in lists. Filtering of errors
and notification of errors can be set.
(4) GeoZones
Deviation or entry of forklift trucks from or to a set area can be checked. (Figure 6)(5) Breadcrumbs
The location information history of each forklift can be checked. (Figure 7)

Figure 6

Example of GeoZones display

Figure 7

Example of Breadcrumbs display

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 54 No. 1 (March 2017)20(6)Maintenance Planner
The schedule and actual operational records of each forklift can be comprehensively
understood and used for service planning. Maintenance proposals can be made based on theactual operational management.
(7) Report Browser
Obtained data is extracted by various conditions and output in CSV. Advanced analysis
and graphing can be made, and operations are scheduled, substantially reducing the burden ofregular analysis processing.

|4. Efforts toward operational management system and challenges
Along with the progress of infrastructure technologies and sensing technologies resulting in
the diffusion of Wi-Fi and reduced costs of 3G lines, new products incorporating thesetechnologies are in demand in addition to existing operational management systems.
Therefore, our company has made the following efforts toward competitive
commercialization, not only in the domestic market, but also overseas.
<Present efforts>- Cost reduction of vehicle-installed equipment (improvement of market diffusion rate)- Extensibility of cloud service including database and charge system according to the form ofservice- Application to diversified communication systems (proposal according to the purpose suchas acceleration and cost reduction)- Maintenance of forklift trucks (preventive repairs before the occurrence of failures)- Positioning of forklift trucks indoors or outdoors<Future challenges>- Connection between forklift trucks and other equipment (equipment inside factory, delivery
system, etc.) and automation- Information linkage among different industries. Connection of logistics and information fromproduction to consumer- Functionalization of expertise of skilled workers- Forklift trucks that operate autonomously and support operations (providing automatic
operation instruction)- Integration of data of objects to be handled such as products and pallets and actual cargohandling data of forklift trucks (which means that a forklift truck which originally onlytransports cargo serves as an information transmission base that integrates and manages thelogistics information by connecting product information and cargo handling work.)
Forklift solutions have been in a period of change, and should be shifted to a cross-industry
solution through efforts toward the establishment of a "cargo handling support system that does not
require experienced operators" in the same manner as automated operation technology, therealization of optimum logistics through AI and deep learning technology, as well as operational
support and work support systems.

|5. Conclusion
Forklift trucks are used in various industries and fields in Japan and overseas, and they areimportant industrial vehicles on which the logistics which supports our lives is based.
We aim at establishing a leading-edge forklift truck solution that supports logistics aroundthe world through the development of our own technologies and their integration with externaltechnologies.
The origin (or purpose) of a forklift truck is "to transport cargo correctly, quickly, efficiently
and safely." We are also going to consider the future image of forklift trucks while placing value on
workers' pleasure of working with them.