Pudu’s MP2000 Forks 2,000 kg Pallets in 20 Seconds
Pudu Robotics put a pallet jack with a brain on the product page.
The MP2000 is an “AI-native” pallet handler with a 2,000 kg (4,409 lb) payload. Pudu’s August 18 launch post and product spec sheet say fork insertion finishes in 20 seconds, with travel up to 1.6 m/s empty and 1.2 m/s loaded. The Robot Report, via Industrial Briefs, dated the unveiling August 19.
Specs that fit a pallet, not a slide
Pudu lists two SKUs, both 1,585 × 910 × 1,870 mm:
- MPID01-M (standard): fork outer width 620 mm
- MPID01-N (narrow fork): 550 mm
Lift height is 200 ± 5 mm. Lowered forks sit at 80 ± 5 mm. Navigation is 3D LiDAR-SLAM plus VSLAM. Battery life is 12 hours empty and 6 hours at max load. Charge time is about 2 hours on 200–240 Vac, or 3.2 hours on 100–120 Vac.
The interesting mechanical claims sit in the aisle:
- 90° pallet pickup in aisles as narrow as 2 m
- pallet spacing down to 15 cm
- offsets up to 15 cm and 15° on a manually placed pallet
- thresholds up to 10 mm, gaps up to 35 mm
- gradeability 3° loaded, 8° empty
Industrial Briefs, summarizing The Robot Report, adds that the fleet manager can keep assigning work during a network outage, and a manual override turns the unit into a powered forklift.
What “no site rebuild” actually means
Pudu’s pitch is plug-and-play: no floor magnets, no rebuilt racks. The product page says the stack can recognize three-runner and perimeter-base pallets and learn non-standard carriers. It also claims occupancy detection so the robot picks a free slot without a human confirmation tap.
Tasks can come from PUDU Link, APIs, voice, or a button. Optional hooks cover elevators and automatic doors. Dual mode lets an operator grab the tiller.
That is a lot of “can.” Pudu did not publish a customer site or a measured picks-per-hour from a live warehouse in the pages I fetched. The 20-second fork-in is a cycle claim on a spec sheet.
A Human’s Take
A 2-tonne pallet jack that maps itself and takes a 15 cm miss is the kind of warehouse machine I actually want to watch for a shift. The face on the mast is optional.
What I need next is a timed aisle at a named site, not another render with a glowing ring on the floor. Until then, treat 20 seconds as a fork-in spec, not a throughput guarantee.