Robot will valet-park cars at airport
No more hunting for a parking space as Stan will do it for you
Passengers arriving to fly out of Lyon Airport will soon see a robot parking their cars for them.
The airport has signed a deal with Stanley Robotics for robot valet parking to cut delays for passengers and make better use of the vast outdoor car parks – as the robots can fit up to 50% more cars into the same space.
Already in use indoors at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, the robot voiturier allows drivers to drop off their cars at the parking bay and then head straight to check-in rather than hunting for a parking space themselves and trying to manoeuvre into it.
Created by Paris firm Stanley Robotics over two years and called Stan, the robot is a low-loader electrically-powered zero-emission transporter that picks up cars and slots them in to precise spaces in the car park.
With laser guidance it can park vehicles very tightly together in spaces next to impossible for a human to access.
Passsengers book parking online or via a smartphone app and then drive into a Stanley Robotics bay in the car park. Lock the car and go… and keep the keys.
Stan then enters the rear of the bay, measures the vehicle using lasers and slides a trolley hoist underneath to lift it by the wheels. Cars are then parked in the outdoor car park where there is no public access.
The car will be sitting waiting for the passenger when they arrive back at the airport, as the robot already has live flight information.
As well as faster turnaround for passengers, the system will also mean savings for the airport in parking maintenance with no lighting or signage needed for the robots and more parking spaces created without any infrastructure changes.
