
Road to Robotic Parking Is Littered with Faulty Projects - hvo
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/us/road-to-robotic-parking-islittered-with-faulty-projects.html
======
Animats
There are many good robotic parking systems, but the US-developed ones tend to
be one-offs, and are not engineered well enough.

The design problems are mostly basic mechanical design problems. Some systems
park a car on a flat pallet, then move the pallet. This has the risk of the
car rolling if the brakes don't hold. The more robust systems have a curb on
both sides of the pallet and depressions for the wheels, or curbs that rise at
each end. (This should be mandatory in earthquake zones.) This also gives the
driver more guidance on getting the car positioned properly. The modern
systems all check with light beams for proper positioning, but it's better if
there are also physical obstacles.

There are palletless systems, where rows of rails rise up under the wheels and
lift the car for transport, but those seem to be less popular.

The better designs have more than one retrieval mechanism that can access each
slot, so if one fails, the system can still operate, but more slowly.

The lifts have to have the usual safety devices of a freight elevator. There
is no excuse for an elevator falling, which has happened.

The usual problems of exposed machinery apply. Everything has to be built for
a wet, hostile environment. Optical sensors must survive dirt. Limit switches
must survive being banged on. Motors must be weatherproof. Some of these
parking systems are repurposed automated warehouse designs, and that's a
marginal approach. You want someone on the design team who's designed for a
harsh environment, like railroading. "Move fast and break things" will not
work.

------
Larrikin
This is a solved problem in Japan and its actually annoying seeing space being
wasted in Tokyo by traditional ground level only parking lots, since they
could have built a much taller structure to serve more cars.

------
jostmey
A huge complex and probably expensive system is made so that people can wait
while their car is brought to them instead of driving it out themselves. This
idea will never make it.

~~~
csours
Except in places where land is very expensive, for example, Tokyo or NYC.

In addition these systems can be used to good effect in auto manufacturing.
BMW has one for finished vehicles; the GM plant I worked at in Arlington TX
has one for painted bodies.

Throughput is definitely an issue; in the manufacturing system I worked with,
a vehicle could be stored or retrieved in about 1 minute; but these are
uniform size and shape, and are not finished products. 6 minutes seems like a
very long time, unless you have an app to pre-retrieve your vehicle.

Also I wouldn't care to design one for all of the various types and sized of
vehicles.

~~~
laxatives
Similarly this is very common in small boat/dinghy storage where land values
near water is very high (albeit with a lot less automation). Raised racks
store boats long term and an operator has to retrieve it on request.

------
teambob
"...like a high-tech vending machine." Well there's your problem

------
cleverjake
philadelphia has had one for years - works great.
[http://liftparking.com/](http://liftparking.com/)

