Robotic Car Parks: the Future Solution to Parking Problems?

• 31 December 2015
• Local News
• 3808 Views

From parking structures to warehouses for parking

More cars means traffic jams, more pollution, more noise, more time driving, and many man-hours lost. A lack of parking spaces has become increasingly problematic and for many buildings without enough parking spaces it is difficult to provide more due to a lack of land and the challenge of rebuilding.

For residential areas with insufficient parking spaces, neighbours fighting for parking spaces can cause social problems. For businesses, if customers cannot park they will probably go to another place causing a loss of valuable business.

As the number of cars increases every year, storing them has become an increasingly priority. From small storage stables and long-term garages to simple curb-side parking, the creation of off-street car parks in large plots, and the construction of multi-storey car parks, the geography of cities has changed.

The future will likely see technology bring a super-high tech approach to intelligent buildings which will use denominated robotic or automated car parks. The high price and maintenance means these super high-tech buildings may not work as a suitable substitute for a normal car park but in cases where land is at a premium or there is simply no space for parking in a conventional way, a robotic car park could be exceptionally useful.

What is a robotic car park?

A robotic or automated car park is a mechanical-access parking structure composed of lifts, pallets, and other mechanical devices to move cars from an access floor to an elevated or/and underground parking stall and return them to the exit level. Systems vary from simple devices that can double or triple-stack vehicles in a parking space with 22 vehicles in the space of 2 to sophisticated lift systems with over 1,000 parking spaces stacked on racks.

A robotic/automated car park is controlled by a programmable electronic system with completely computerized lift systems that move simultaneously in both vertical and horizontal directions by lifting and carrying cars on steel pallets. Drivers simply pull into a single bay on the ground floor, turn off their engine, leave the bay, and then their cars are hoisted into an empty space untouched by human hands. The driver doesn’t need to enter or remember where the car was parked because it automatically returns directly to an exit bay in just 2-3 minutes.

Robotic car parks are currently being developed mainly in Australia, Japan, South Korea, USA and Europe. Robotic parking structures can be adapted to already existing buildings or be built as an independent edifice either underground or aboveground.

Architecture for machines and robots? Is a robotic car park real architecture? Or is it just a machine behind walls? Traditional car parks are categorised as transport facility architecture so it is reasonable to consider robotic parking structures as the same.

Nevertheless, there is a contradiction with the nature of architecture which main purpose is to provide a human habitat. Yet indirectly these structures still serve humans to store their vehicles.

Perhaps this is the future of many cities with buildings, vehicles and machines that will perfectly accomplish the function of serving humans with more reliability, automation, comfort and efficiency. But with the dehumanisation and the decline of direct personal contact, the question remains open ?

By Ruben Castillero-Mortera

rubencastillero@yahoo.co.uk

The author is currently a lecturer at Raffles International College (Phnom Penh). He is an expert in robotic car parks and urban transport. He has worked in several architectural practices and as freelancer designing different projects, and as well as a lecturer in various countries. He has a BA in Architecture by the National University of Mexico and a MSc in Advanced Architectural Studies by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK.