You drive your car into the parking garage entrance and get out. Then, you press an onscreen button at a terminal that calls in the valet. A robot arrives, takes the car, and parks it all on its own. That’s the vision that fuels Stanley Robotics’ Stan, a robot valet currently testing at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.
Billed as the world’s first outdoor-capable valet parking robot, the automaton consists of a lift that perches your car on its platform via the tires, brings it to an empty lot on the parking facility, and sets it down autonomously. That way, you get spared from the hassle of trying to find parking space, all without having to leave your keys at a valet.
The Stan parking robot is fitted with an array of sensors that allow it to determine how much space each car will need, ensuring it won’t accidentally try to cram your F-150 into a space more suited to a two-seat sports car. It doesn’t follow parking lanes, by the way, since no one will need to get in and out of the car, resulting in a more efficient use of space, with the outfit claiming an increase of up to 50 percent in parking capacity. Each robot can manage up to 400 parking spaces.
When you need to retrieve your car, you simply launch the accompanying smartphone app and enter the pertinent details. From there, you just wait at the designated area of the parking garage for your vehicle to be retrieved.
Learn more about Stan from the Stanley Robotics website.