Organization: Cyngn
Country: U.S.
Website: cyngn.com
Year Founded: 2013
Number of Employees: 51-100
Innovation Class: Application
Forklifts must be able to navigate complex environments, and Cyngn Inc. has developed the DriveMod system to provide autonomy to industrial vehicles. Last year, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company also completed its first paid deployment at a customer facility.
DriveMod can be added to existing tuggers and forklifts via a retrofit kit, or it can be incorporated into new ones on the production line. It has safety features such as 360° high-definition perception and Cyngn’s Virtual Bumper technology.
“The DriveMod Forklift represents the holy grail of automation,” stated Ben Landen, vice president of business development at Cyngn. “This is one of the few machines that can autonomously accomplish entire material moving flows, from A to Z, without requiring human intervention.”
The self-driving forklift uses artificial intelligence and proprietary computer vision to analyze stack and pocket dimensions in real time. This enables it to precisely handle loads over 10,000 lb. (4,545 kg) and elevate productivity, Cyngn said.
As of September 2024, the DriveMod Forklift can also operate both indoors and outdoors.
“One of the biggest pain points businesses face is the wasted time and resources involved in transporting materials between buildings,” said Sean Stetson, vice president of engineering at Cyngn. “This time-consuming task ties up equipment and pulls workers away from where they’re most needed, resulting in expensive lost productivity. By automating these tasks, companies can eliminate these inefficiencies, shifting workers to other responsibilities.”
DriveMod is part of Cyngn’s Enterprise Autonomy Suite, which includes the Cyngn Insight tool that customers can use for vehicle monitoring, teleoperation, mission planning, and analytics. The suite also includes the Cyngn Evolve toolkit, which enables the company to use data from the field for AI, simulation, and modeling.
In 2023, Arauco, a building materials manufacturer, pre-ordered 100 DriveMod Forklfits. In October 2024, Cyngn said a customer has deployed DriveMod at a large facility, and it plans to integrate more units this year, marking a milestone in the system’s commercialization.
The company is targeting autonomous applications in logistics, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and defense.