Robotic Car Parking Garage

Posted 23 Feb 2006 at 05:19 UTC by The Swirling Brain

This article caught my eye about a Robotic Parking Garage. The article mentions that Robotic Parking Systems Inc. will be opening a new robotic garage in Boston later this year like the one already operating in Hoboken, NJ. It's kind of cool in that it can fit twice or more the number of cars into the same space. Customers drive their car onto a pallet and exit and the robotic system files their car away in its huge filing system. Later, the customers come back and their car is presented within a few short minutes. The Garage even utilizes AI and tries to learn customer trends. The garage shuffles the cars around during the day to try to return the cars as quickly and efficiently as possible. The whole system runs on an off-the-shelf PC running GE's simplicity software. On their website you can see a CNN video clip of the Robotic Parking Garage in action. It's not without its mishaps, though. NYT reported on how a Jeep Wrangler and a Cadillac DeVille fell off their pallets to their destruction.

Anyone care to guess which operating system they're using for their off-the-shelf PC? *Cough* NT *cough* ...and now a time for reflection and contemplation.

Seen in japan, posted 23 Feb 2006 at 05:52 UTC by heathkit » (Journeyer)

They've had these in Japan for a couple years now (Since 2003, at least). I remember seeing one in downtown Hiroshima. Unfortunately, it blew my mind so much, I didn't think to take a picture.