The Mobile Robot Company wins IFOY Award for dual-mode pallet jack

Danish startup The Mobile Robot Company won the 2026 IFOY Award after building a pallet jack that blends manual operation with autonomous transport. The win gives the Copenhagen company fresh credibility as warehouses look for cheaper, faster ways to automate without fully replacing workers.

Why it matters: - The Mobile Robot Company is betting that warehouses do not need full autonomy to cut labor and transport time. - The J1600 aims to remove up to 80% of manual work in pallet transport by automating repetitive travel while keeping workers in control of judgment-heavy tasks. - The approach targets smaller operators that cannot justify million-euro automation projects.

What happened: - The Mobile Robot Company ApS was founded in November 2024 and is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. - Co-founders Emil Hauch Jensen and Odin Kudahl Skovsted built the J1600, a dual-mode self-driving pallet jack. - The J1600 won the 2026 IFOY Award for Industrial Truck of the Year on June 26, 2026, in Stuttgart, Germany. - The robot first appeared publicly as an IFOY finalist at TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS in Dortmund, Germany, in April 2026.

The details: - The J1600 operates in manual mode like a conventional walk-behind electric pallet jack, then switches to autonomous travel for the long haul. - An operator uses a 15-inch multi-touch interface to select a destination and press a physical start button before the robot drives itself. - The vehicle carries a rated payload of 1,600 kilograms and reaches a top speed of 5.4 kilometers per hour. - The robot uses 3D LiDAR SLAM processed by an industrial NVIDIA Jetson AI computer. - The J1600 requires no magnetic tape, wires, QR codes or other floor infrastructure. - A human operator creates a map by driving the vehicle manually through the facility, with scanning up to 70 meters away. - Safety hardware includes two 2D safety LiDAR scanners that create a 360-degree protective field. - Safety functions including person detection and braking are rated up to Performance Level d under EN ISO 13849-1. - The company says the robot can handle roughly 80% autonomous operation at a 100-meter transport distance and 95% at 500 meters. - The startup partnered with one of the world’s top forklift manufacturers to produce the chassis, motors and welding. - The company has nine employees. - The first products launched in January 2026, after market launch on October 20, 2025, and pre-orders opened in December. - The IFOY Innovation Check, run by Fraunhofer IML and Fraunhofer IPA, rated the J1600’s functionality as “very good” and called it a “game changer” for low-threshold intralogistics automation. - A logistics professional who had only used standard pallet jacks was able to learn the J1600’s basic workflow in under 15 minutes during the Dortmund audit.

Between the lines: - The J1600 is a direct challenge to the industry assumption that full autonomy is the only path to scalable warehouse automation. - Jensen and Skovsted are using a hardware-first model as a moat, arguing that embedded systems and safety-certified industrial vehicles are harder to commoditize than software. - The open pricing model stands out in a sector that often hides costs behind custom integration deals. - The partner-led sales strategy suggests the startup is trying to scale with low overhead rather than build a large direct sales force. - Winning the IFOY Award gives the company an external validation point that could help convert cautious warehouse operators.

What's next: - The Mobile Robot Company is in talks with venture capital firms and angel investors, while its current capital needs are covered. - The company is developing an unannounced next product with new form factors beyond the pallet jack. - The founders say the longer-term goal is likely a strategic acquisition. - The company plans to keep expanding through distributors, integrators and service partners in additional countries.

The bottom line: - The Mobile Robot Company is trying to make warehouse automation practical for the messy middle of operations, not just the most engineered facilities. - Its pitch is simple: let humans make the judgment calls and let robots handle the distance.