Improving the Accuracy of "Stan" - A Fully Autonomous Outdoor Parking and Valet Robot

THE NEED
Automated parking systems are not new to the industry— mechanical solutions have been used for over 100 years. In fact, the first use of an automated parking system was in Paris, France in 1905 at the Garage Rue de Ponthieu. It was an elevator to transport cars to various levels where attendants manually parked the cars. However, effective high-density car storage solutions require vehicles to be moved from outside to inside and parked with high-precision navigational accuracy. To avoid the costs of human drivers, a smart and fully autonomous system is required. Centimeter-level localization is vital so that these robots are able to navigate these vehicles in a canyon of cars and narrow alleys without damage or injury.