Robotic Parking System
In New York, it’s very hard to find a parking spot, and recently, the first robotic car parking system opened in Chinatown in New York. It’s been pretty successful in a lot of the other places in the world, but not in the United States. In fact, it has been very destructive. In New Jersey, the garage has been known to drop unoccupied cars up to 6 stories! In the beginning of last year, there was a problem that wasn’t repaired for 26 hours, with the cars trapped inside.
But still, the makers of the Chinatown garage are very confident that this time, it would work. They estimated that the garage will fit 67 cars that would only usually fit 24. There isn’t a humanoid robot that goes inside your car and drives it. Instead, the driver stops on a pallet and gets out of the car. Then the pallet is lowered into the inner parts of the garage, and maneuvers it to an empty parking spot. The spots are computer controlled, it’s kind of like an elevator but it can also move sideways.
Inside the garage, there are no humans, but there are attendants to accept cash and explain how this robot works.
Even though these accidents have occurred, the maker assure people that “It is a complete virtual impossibility that damage can occur.”
There are laser and radar sensors to detect if the car fits onto the pallet, then it scans for movement to determine whether the people in the car have left the car or not. When the car is parked on the pallet and ready to go, the driver is told to exit the car and leave the bay, and a door closes behind them before starting to maneuver the car into the garage.
When the driver returns to leave, the underground system retrieves the car, sometimes moving things around but it all works out.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Hi Catrina
I thought your article was very interesting and easy to understand even though I didn’t know anything about these news. I think it is funny that there is a parking system like this, but at the same time, there are some risks like system would go down. I think it is scary for people who lives in New York or New Jersey, because the system went down in New Jersey so there might be a lot of people who won’t use that car park.
Overall, I thought your article was great.
Good job!
Honoka
February 15th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Hey Catrina,
I really loved this article and you gave an informative and interesting summary. It is so cool that there are garages that park your car for you! I wonder whether they would start having these garages here? I hope that the garage is better and won’t break down again! That would be awful! Imagine waiting for 26 hours just for your car! But one thing that is confusing me is how does the machine know which car is yours? Anyways, it was very interesting and different!
Arathi
February 15th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Thats awsome
I don’t understand how they identify your car though
How much of hig techness there is i wouldnet park here
Cool article./
February 21st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Very interesting topic Catrina. Have you thought about the impact it would have on public places if all parking lots had such capabilities? Think about the stress it would reduce not to have to search or fight for parking spots. It’s definitely maximizing the space usage. i couldn’t open your original article but I’d like to read it one day. Thanks for remembering to include the map. Next time, don’t forget to discuss the importance of this event and how it could ultimately affect the people.
Ms. Seang
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:41 am
Hey Catrina,
I thought this article is very interesting because this shows how humans are taking another step toward making life easier. However, everything is dependant on the technology which might not be such a good thing. People will have to rely on machines to get their car out and if the machine fails, everyone’s in trouble. Yet, I felt that it is a very innovative way to save time and space and humans are really using what’s given to them [brain]. Good job for choosing a great article.
Sai. :]
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:23 pm
hi! catrina, do you want to change your topic of air pollution to teen smoking if you like the idea write me a comment on my blog