A powered industrial truck which is used to lift and move materials over short distances are called forklift.In general, a forklift is a vehicle, that is operated manually (by an operator) to pick up and drop off the desired object in a shop floor. In the proposed system, we aim to automate the process thereby reducing man power and monotonicity in the job. This can help reduce errors while picking up and dropping off of the desired object. The main aim is to incorporate automation by means of an external controller and monitoring through a camera in order to decide which object is to be picked up and dropped off at what point of time. In conventional use, the desired object can be traced using barcodes, QR codes and RFID tags. For the purpose of cost effectiveness and reduced complexity we are using coloured boxes and camera for our working prototype. The forklift would be programmed in such a way so as to lift the required object based on its colour. In addition to this we have introduced obstacle detection also to minimise or even completely avoid accidents that prevail in the shop floor. On detecting an obstacle on the path, the forklift will stop immediately and giving warning to the operator to remove the obstacle. Once the obstacle is removed in the path, the forklift will continue to move on its path. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.