Want to see a forklift Moonwalk? Videos of have been popping up showing forklifts driving in some unexpected ways and it’s really impressive. Now saying it moonwalks is a bit of a misnomer as they aren’t dancing or walking, but boy does it look like it.

So how does a machine face forward and drive sideways? It all has to do with the wheels, mecanum wheels consist of a hub with rollers oriented 45° to the axis of rotation.  The angle is important because each wheel can be operated separately which forces of the wheels working in opposite directions to let the rollers to come into play and cause the sideways movement. The wheels can be used for normal directional control for forward and backwards movement with all wheels going in the same direction. They can also pivot on the spot like a tank using skid steering with one sides wheel goes forward and the other side goes backwards. The controls for the forklift is done using 2 joysticks

These mecanum wheels have been used in robotics for a few years at this point but these new tires for forklifts allow to navigate tight spaces letting you optimize every square foot of space in a warehouse. The full 360 degrees of mobility is perfect for reaching hard to get locations. Unfortunately, these can’t just put slapped on any old forklift, you have to have the proper controls and motors set up but the benefits on mobility seem worth it. It might be interesting to see on other types of vehicles with these wheels, and I have to say these would make parallel parking a lot easier.

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