Product and Capabilities
Answers to the most common questions about what the J1600 is and what it can do. For the full picture, see the J1600 overview and the technical specifications.
What is the J1600?
The J1600 is a compact, electric, dual-mode self-driving pallet jack for indoor, floor-to-floor pallet transport. You can operate it with a tiller like a conventional walk-behind electric pallet jack, or send it autonomously to saved locations. It is the first product of The Mobile Robot Company ApS, a Danish robotics company founded in November 2024 and headquartered in Hvidovre, Denmark. The J1600 is made in Denmark.
What does "dual mode" mean?
Dual mode combines two operating behaviors in one vehicle:
- Manual mode — a person controls the tiller and lift functions exactly like a conventional electric pallet jack, including nuanced pickup, handling up to 1.6 m, difficult approaches, and sensitive or unstable loads.
- Automatic mode — after the operator selects a saved destination and confirms the mode change, the vehicle drives autonomously, drops the pallet at floor level, and follows its configured return, park, or wait behavior.
See Dual mode for the full explanation.
How much can the J1600 carry?
The rated payload is 1,600 kg (approximately 3,500 lb).
How high can it lift?
In manual mode, the J1600 picks and drops pallets at heights up to 1,600 mm (63 in). Autonomous pallet delivery is at floor level. The 1.6 m lift is a manual capability — the robot does not deliver at height in automatic mode.
How fast does it drive?
Top speed is 5.4 km/h (1.5 m/s / 3.4 mph).
How much operator time does it save?
Up to 80% of the manual work and operator time spent on repetitive transport. The claim applies to the repetitive travel portion of pallet transport, not to every warehouse process. The design intent is roughly 80% automation rather than 100%: the operator keeps judgment-heavy pickup and exception handling, and the robot removes the repeated walking. See Human-in-the-loop automation.
What does the robot do after it delivers a pallet?
You choose the post-delivery behavior when you create the task: return to the origin or operator, go to another saved point or to parking, or stop and wait at the destination. The most commonly used task is manual pickup, autonomous delivery, floor-level drop, and return to origin.
Do I need Wi-Fi or IT integration to use it?
No. Wi-Fi is optional for basic use, and no warehouse-management system, fleet manager, or other IT integration is required. Advanced connectivity — VDA 5050, a REST API, and fleet management — is available as an optional software upgrade when the application grows. See Software and integrations.
How long does it take to learn?
About 30 minutes for an operator who already uses an electric pallet jack. The tiller and manual behavior are designed to feel like a conventional electric pallet jack, and tasks are created on the touchscreen without code.
What controls does the operator have?
A 15-inch multi-touch screen for tasks and locations, a physical LED start/resume button for automatic execution, a three-position key switch (power off, manual only, automatic), and the tiller itself. Grabbing or moving the tiller returns the vehicle to manual control immediately.
Who is the J1600 designed for?
The primary segment is small and medium businesses running a single shift with roughly one to five pallet-jack operators — operations that cannot justify a large automation project. It also fits larger sites with local work cells or flows that are too small or too changeable for a conventional fleet project, and brownfield facilities seeking incremental automation.
What kinds of work does it automate?
Indoor, floor-to-floor pallet flows: goods receiving, storage, production supply, staging and buffer management, cross-docking, temporary storage, and shipping. Pallet pickup is always manual; the robot automates the travel and the floor-level drop. See Pallets and loads for what it can carry.
Has the J1600 won any awards?
Yes. The J1600 won the IFOY AWARD 2026 in the Industrial Truck of the Year category, announced on 26 June 2026 after the ceremony in Stuttgart. It competed against products from established industrial-truck manufacturers, passed the three-stage IFOY Audit, and received the Best in Intralogistics Certificate on 16 April 2026. The Mobile Robot Company was also named to a list of 100 robotics startups to watch in November 2025 and joined the NVIDIA Inception program the same month.
Where can I see the full specifications?
The J1600 technical specifications page lists dimensions, performance, battery, environment limits, and safety data.
The January 2026 J1600 specifications are preliminary and subject to change.