Are you a driver, who has to pause before parking in those constricted-spaces, or the one who is always in a rush and hates the hunt for a parking space? In either case, the good news is that a Robot Ray has been developed to save you. The Robot Ray can automatically park 60 percent more vehicles in the same space as compared to a human driver.
For now, Ray has been employed by the Dusseldorf International Airport in Germany. The drivers leave their cars at a dedicated area called Vehicle Transfer Station (VTS). It throws laser to measure the precise height and width of the vehicle. The system also measures the position of other parts such as wheels, side-view mirrors and bumper.
The driver is free to go after a ticket from a terminal. Ray takes over from this point. He will take the car to one of 249 parking spaces depending on the measurements taken earlier.
With its 360 degrees rotating wheels, Ray rolls boldly in extremely tight spaces.
Ray slides its fork-like lifters under the rear and front wheel to pick the car. It can carry any car weighing up to three tons. It can grow in size by extending in length.
It works on an algorithm according to which it can re-shift the vehicle’s positions if they are not optimum. To get the vehicle back, driver pays ticket and the car is brought to the VTS.
The developers of this technology are Serva transport systems in Grabenstätt Bavaria and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics in Dortmund.
The service costs 29 euro a day, and targets busy business travellers. It can be booked by using an app.
Ray is not just for the I-won’t-parallel-park. With the population growing every day, it is also a solution to the dearth of parking space.