Toyota Forklift Steering Wheel

Hello, my name is Bryce Yoder and I am a student at Diablo Valley College.

When creating this design, I decided to focus on the Human Machine Interface: How can controls and the flow of information be improved? I took inspiration from the automotive industry and moved the forklift controls to the steering wheel. This way the operator almost never has to lift a finger, making the workday easier and while requiring less effort. The controls are similar to some you might find in a car, that way a new operator can get used to it fairly quickly. This also helps because you can operate the controls without taking your eyes away from what's ahead of you.

I designed this using an apple pen on sketchbook then modeled it in Fusion 360.

It's no secret most people hate their job and are miserable at work. I wanted to design something to help the workday be less miserable. To narrow it down I thought what makes work so horrible? When you really think about it, it kind of all centers around three things.

• Work is boring
• Work is tiring
• Its a waste of time

Now designing something to make work fun or make the time go by faster is very challenging. But making work less tiring isn't. One thing that makes work so tiring is you're always moving your body and muscles. How can we work and use as little movement as possible? Moving just your arm back and forth after a few minutes gets tiring, let alone after 8-10 hours. I wanted a design that didn't require you to move your arms let alone barley move your fingers. Reflecting on this brought me to the question what amenities in the car can we bring to the forklift? Steering wheel controls. Changing the radio station or setting the cruise control in a car using the steering wheel is so convenient. You can do it autonomously and it's really simple. That would be great in a forklift. Moving heavy stuff across the warehouse simply by using the controls on the steering wheel. This also helps make it easier to get used to driving the forklift. There's a wide variety of different forklifts with completely different controls in different spots making it confusing to get used to each forklifts controls. This way you get in and it already feels natural.

The main controls are toggle switches that are 1.5 inches high so you can use them with gloves. I chose a rubber material, so you have grip. The switches on the left toggle your speed. Next to that is the horn button. On the other side is your up and down and tilt controls. What makes this different from the controls on the left is the icon for the tilt and up and down controls function as buttons. Pressing one puts it in its select mode. For example pressing tilt puts it in tilt mode vs being in up and down mode. Pressing the button illuminates it in yellow vs white. The control that functions as the horn button on the other side works as a side to side control on this side. The buttons automatically lock after 5 seconds of not being used. This safety feature prevents you from accidentally using the controls when you don't want to. There is a message with a yellow light at the bottom that illuminates when the controls are locked. To unlock the controls there's paddles similar to paddle shifters on the back of the steering wheel.

I hope you enjoyed my design. This was a really cool project that I put a lot of thought into and had a lot of fun doing.