IN Brief:
- Clear Aisle Assist scans narrow warehouse aisles for loads and objects protruding into a sideloader’s path.
- The monitored area changes with vehicle speed, direction, lift height, and operating configuration.
- Visual and audible warnings can be followed by an automatic speed reduction while the driver retains control.
HUBTEX uses LiDAR-based monitoring to detect loads and other objects protruding into the path of multidirectional sideloaders operating in narrow warehouse aisles.
Clear Aisle Assist scans the truck’s route in both directions and warns the operator when an object enters the monitored zone. If the vehicle continues towards the obstruction, the system can reduce travel speed automatically while leaving steering and final control with the driver.
The technology has been developed for high-density long-load storage, where clearance between the truck, racking, and stored goods can fall below 100mm on either side. Products can protrude because they were positioned incorrectly, stored at an angle, or displaced when an adjacent load was retrieved.
Those obstructions are not always visible from the cab, particularly on the engine side of a sideloader or when the mast and load restrict the operator’s view. Clear Aisle Assist uses LiDAR sensors to scan vertical planes along the route, creating a monitored area that changes with travel speed, direction, lift height, and vehicle configuration.
A visual and audible warning is issued first, followed by an automatic reduction in speed when the truck continues to approach the hazard. The staged response is intended to give the operator time to stop or correct the route without imposing a sudden intervention on an elevated or unstable load.
The system is available for HUBTEX’s PHOENIX range of electric multidirectional sideloaders. It supplements the site’s existing personal-protection, traffic-management, and operator-control measures rather than replacing them.
“Our aim was to develop an assistance system that actively supports the driver without adding extra burden,” said Michael Röbig, head of product management at HUBTEX. “Clear Aisle Assist recognises dangerous situations early and can, if needed, not only warn but also automatically reduce the vehicle’s speed.”
Density narrows the margin for error
Higher storage density allows operators to defer building expansion and extract more capacity from an existing footprint, but narrower aisles reduce the space available to correct steering, positioning, and load-handling errors. The compromise becomes more pronounced when goods extend several metres beyond the carriage or vary in shape and rigidity.
Timber, steel, plastics, panels, tubes, and extrusions create a different hazard geometry from standard pallets. An obstruction may sit beside the cab, above floor level, or within the swept path of the product rather than the chassis, which limits the value of systems focused only on the area directly in front of the vehicle.
Scanning a vertical plane gives the truck a view of the clearance required by both vehicle and load. Because that zone changes with speed and lift height, the system can widen or contract its monitoring rather than applying the same threshold in every operating condition.
The decision to slow the truck rather than trigger an abrupt stop is also significant. Sudden braking can destabilise a long or elevated load, place stress on restraint points, or create a secondary collision risk, whereas controlled deceleration gives the driver more time without introducing another severe movement.
Assistance technology still depends on disciplined storage and maintenance. Damaged racking, poorly positioned stock, inaccurate load dimensions, uneven floors, and inadequate housekeeping can produce hazards that no onboard sensor can remove, so the warning system must sit alongside inspection, training, route control, and reporting procedures.
Fleet-level analysis is beginning to extend those controls. Yale has already combined pedestrian-detection events within a central dashboard, allowing repeated alerts to be assessed by location, vehicle, and shift rather than treated as isolated incidents.
Clear Aisle Assist addresses loads and infrastructure rather than pedestrians, yet the same principle could apply if obstruction events are retained. Repeated warnings in one aisle may indicate poor storage practice, damaged guidance equipment, excessive speed, or a layout that routinely leaves too little clearance.
Patterns across several vehicles can separate a one-off mistake from a structural problem. When alerts cluster around the same rack position or load type, the corrective action may involve revised storage rules, changed product orientation, altered guidance settings, or physical changes to the aisle.
Operator acceptance will influence the outcome. Nuisance alarms can encourage drivers to distrust or disable assistance systems, while interventions that feel unpredictable may affect productivity. Dynamic monitoring should reduce unnecessary warnings, although the thresholds will need to be configured and reviewed against real operating conditions.
Maintenance introduces another requirement because sensor alignment, cleanliness, software settings, and vehicle modifications can all affect detection. A system that performs correctly when commissioned may deteriorate if damage or contamination is not identified during routine checks.
HUBTEX has placed the technology between a passive warning device and fully automated control. The driver remains responsible for manoeuvring the truck, but the vehicle gains an additional view of clearances that are difficult to judge consistently from the cab.
As warehouses continue to compress aisles around long-load operations, those clearances will become less forgiving. The capacity gained through denser storage can be worthwhile, provided the controls evolve at the same pace as the physical margin disappears.
