Fleet of ROBOTS to park travellers' cars at Gatwick Airport
AN army of robots called Stan will start parking fliers’ cars at Gatwick Airport this year.
Britain’s second busiest airport will do test runs of the robot-valet fleet for three months to boost parking capacity. Gatwick is working with parking robotics company Stanley Robotics to trial the new technology from April to August, according to a planning application to Crawley Council. It is hoped the new move will increase the number of parking spaces available as robotically-parked cars don’t need space for drivers to get out.
Stanley Robotics has already rolled out the technology in Lyon Airport and christened its robots ‘Stan’.
Co-founder Stéphane Evanno, said: “We call it a valet parking robot because people just need to drop off their car at the entrance of the car park and then they can basically leave and catch a flight.
“It’s a machine that detects a vehicle, slides under it, lifts it gently by the wheels and moves it to a storage area.”
Customers park in a cabin before their flight with robots collecting the vehicles and moving it to a parking area.
It’s a machine that detects a vehicle, slides under it, lifts it gently by the wheels and moves it to a storage area
The robot logs the traveller’s itinerary details so the vehicle is ready to collect when they return to their vehicle.
Gatwick’s trial will take place in Zone B of the airport’s south terminal long-stay car park.
Some 170 spaces from 2,350 will be trialled and replaced with 270 robotic valet parking spaces.
The airport, which saw 46.1 million travellers pass through last year, will start building work for the experiment in April.
Gatwick hopes to test run the project from August.
If tests are successful the airport will roll out the robot valet service to two other parking areas.
It is hoped 8,500 robot-parked cars can fit into the current 6,000 self-park spots.
The application states: “The trial area, comprises an existing area of surface parking which is currently configured for self parking.
“Zone B currently accommodates some 2,350 spaces. During the trial this will reduce to 2,180 self-park spaces and 270 robot valet parking spaces.
“This area will be fenced off from the remainder of the Long Stay Car Park with new fencing.
“The primary element of the development is the installation of eight cabins on the east side of the trial area.
“Each cabin is expected to be some 4.6m x 8.7m x 3.2m high.”