The invention discloses an intelligent unmanned forklift system based on visual navigation, and a method. The system comprises a forklift main body, an input module, an output module and a trip computer, wherein the input module and an output module both are connected with the trip computer and mounted on a bodywork main part of the forklift together; the input module comprises a cord pulling typedistance meter, an electronic compass, a camera, an infrared sensor, a pressure sensor and a laser range finder; the output module comprises an arduino micro control module, a stepping motor driver,an analog quantity input-output module, a 16-way switching value control module, an alarm, a wifi transmission module, a cloud service data processing center. According to the invention, the modules are combined with each other to form the intelligent unmanned forklift system, integrated unmanned operations of unmanned movement, movement deviation correction, visual navigation, goods forking and obstacle detection of an unmanned forklift can be realized, efficiency of the logistics field can be improved, and a lot of labor cost are saved.