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Perhaps, the greatest problem facing city governments on a global scale today is that of parking, with a motorist spending at least a solid thirty minutes in search of a parking spot every single day. This is mainly due to the inefficiency and obsolescence of old-school parking systems not only capturing precious real-estate that could have otherwise been used for other useful purposes, but also leading to public confusion, increased traffic congestion, and high carbon emissions. Read more about how Robotic Parking Systems enables urban architecture.

The thick layer of harmful emissions in the air in tandem with increased traffic congestion makes road accidents a high possibility. The present-day urban scenario lies in need of smart parking technology and systems that can enable urban architecture to tackle such growing problems with efficacy.

Replacing Obsolete Ways with Automation  

To rescue parking from bygone ways, automated or robotic parking systems have emerged and are growing increasingly popular. Under this system, the driver is required to drive his vehicle onto an elevated parking cabin. He gains access to the parking garage by means of automated identification system .Once he has parked his car onto the transfer area and leaves, an automatic shutter door closes following which the process of automated smart parking begins. It is only after the vehicle has reached its parking spot that the platform is lowered and the car is securely parked using robotic arms.

Similarly, when the driver is ready to leave with his car after running his errands, the same automated identification system is used to identify the vehicle which is then brought back to the driver from its respective parking spot via the same robotic arms. The vehicle is safely landed onto the transfer area, the driver gets into it and off they go while the cost is automatically deducted from his account. Simple!

Robotic Parking Systems: Improving the Urban Landscape

An ordinary parking garage is designed in a manner to allow enough room for vehicles to freely move in and out of the parking space. For them, manufacturers need to consider the circulation space. Imagine if such space for movement was not required! Well, that is exactly what happens in the case of robotic parking systems. Since in such systems, the vehicles are parked via robotic arms and automation, circulation space is not needed and cars can be parked extremely close to each other.

Moreover, this property is even useful in terms of storage – more space naturally means more vehicles can be parked in a single garage via single-deep or double-deep configurations.

Furthermore, let us not miss out on the very useful environmental benefit that robotic parking systems hold. Under traditional parking garages, it is highly painstaking and time-consuming for a driver to spot an open parking space. Sometimes, only after hours of searching from floor to floor generate any positive results. The negative impact such hunting has on the environment cannot be overstated. Not to mention the inconvenience it causes to the drivers.

On the other hand, in the case of automated parking systems, the vehicles’ engines are turned off before they enter the system. As a result, at the time of deposit and retrieval, the engines of the vehicles are not running, thereby reducing carbon emissions by 60 to 80 percent.

Perhaps, the best part about such parking systems is that their scope extends beyond the garage itself to encompass the whole process of coming in and going out of the parking spots. Working in combination with IoT-based smart parking solutions including cameras and sensors that provide drivers with real-time information on the availability of parking spaces, different parking operators situated in the driver vicinity, opening and closing hours, advanced reservation facilities and usage restrictions of a parking lot; the entire system of parking, right from its initial stage of ‘parking lot search’ is entirely streamlined, thereby reducing the number of vehicles on the road and environmental pollution.

With more and more vehicles coming on the street each year, the problem of parking will continue to be a challenge. But, robotic parking systems brings the hope that with automation, developers across the world will be able to handle any volume of vehicles within a particular parking space and drivers will not be required to hunt their way to a parking spot. But most importantly, this technology will completely change the way smart cities deal with the issue of parking.