5 benefits of vehicle transport robots

Picture a valet parking attendant. Perhaps you see a white-gloved, waist-coated hospitality professional?

In a not-too-distant future, the attendant dealing with your car might look a little different in some scenarios. That’s because vehicle transport robots are here — and they are set to become an essential component of smart city mobility.

Vehicle transport robots— such as those jointly promoted by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machinery Systems (MHI-MS), a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, and French venture-backed company Stanley Robotics — can be used for automated valet parking at shopping malls, theme parks, airports and more.

They also hold great potential for moving both new and used cars at automobile manufacturing plants and motor pools, where they can be widely used without the need for expensive equipment installations or major operational changes.

In Okinawa, Japan, MHI-MS is testing such a system at the Nakagusuku Bay Motor Pool, which is mainly used for temporary storage of used cars. The demonstration testing will evaluate how these robots can help address a variety of operational and sustainability challenges for such a site.

In this infographic, we explore further some of the challenges vehicle transport robots could help solve: