Sensitive or Unstable Loads
Some loads should never be picked up on autopilot: barrels, liquid containers, top-heavy stacks, fragile goods, leaning pallets. The J1600's answer is to split the job. The operator applies experience and situational awareness during pickup and close maneuvering; the robot takes over only for the repetitive travel in between.
The manual half: judgment at the forks
In manual mode the J1600 handles like a conventional electric pallet jack, and the operator controls every nuance:
- Stability assessment before lifting — recognizing a top-heavy, leaning, or poorly stacked load.
- Condition checks — spotting damaged pallets, crushed corners, or leaks before they travel.
- Controlled lifting. Fork speeds are deliberate: 0.10 m/s lifting unloaded, 0.08 m/s lifting at full load, 0.08 m/s lowering unloaded, 0.12 m/s lowering at full load.
- Confined maneuvering around obstacles, other loads, and tight approaches, with pallet detection and height decisions under manual control.
- Height where needed — manual pick and drop up to 1,600 mm; barrels and cages at awkward positions are placed by hand.
Demonstrations of this use case show exactly this pattern with barrels: manual judgment for the sensitive part, then autonomous transport for the distance.
The autonomous half: smooth, predictable travel
Once the load is safely on the forks, the operator selects the destination, confirms autonomous mode, and steps away. The autonomous leg favors stability by design:
- floor-level delivery only — the load is never dropped from height autonomously;
- level-floor operation (0% automatic gradeability) — no slopes or dock plates in autonomous mode;
- consistent, repeatable driving at up to 5.4 km/h with obstacle avoidance;
- a load-detection sensor and speed-dependent 360-degree safety field throughout — see how J1600 safety works.
The company's Copenhagen test facility validates this behavior with deliberately difficult cases, including water-filled loads on uneven real-world flooring.
Supported carriers
Sensitive loads often arrive on non-standard carriers. The J1600 accepts any forkable open-base carrier within its envelope — open cages, barrels on open-base carriers, and formats beyond Euro pallets — subject to base geometry, size, stability, and operator judgment. No blanket approval exists for every carrier or for hazardous materials. See Open Cages and Alternative Load Carriers for the exact limits.
Related reading
- The full pickup-to-delivery workflow: Manual Pickup and Autonomous Delivery
- Every judgment call that stays human: Handling Exceptions and Irregular Loads
- The concept behind the split: Dual Mode and human-in-the-loop automation