Singapore’s First Automated Guided Vehicle Parking Solution
Jebsen & Jessen (SEA), has deployed Singapore’s first Automatic Guided Vehicle based parking solution at redevelopment project, Robinson Towers.
MHE-Demag, the material handling arm of diversified industrial group, Jebsen & Jessen (SEA), has deployed Singapore’s first Automatic Guided Vehicle based parking solution at redevelopment project, Robinson Towers, located on Robinson Road. The system is controlled and managed by a computer system, which allows a high degree of flexibility, and provides 90 parking lots for all types of cars weighing up to 2600 kg and sizes up to 5.3 (L) x 2.3m (W) x 2.0m (H). It is capable of switching operation modes to adapt to different requirements in the day, be it the peak hours during morning rush or the less busy hours in the afternoon.
The key component of this innovative automatic parking solution is an Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV), which is tasked to carry, manoeuvre and park vehicles in randomly-determined parking lots. The AGV is a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in the floor, and employs the usage of vision, magnets, or lasers for navigation purposes. This automatic parking solution will replace the conventional car ramp with a car lift for multi-storey parking and the parking of cars at each storey will be handled by the respective AGV designated.
The most attractive feature of this solution is the removal of the need for steel supporting structures and steel parking pallets; the cars are either placed on AGV platforms during transportation or rested on supported comb elements mounted on parking floor slab. No additional building provision is required for the system and it can be adapted into a conventional parking provision in any existing building easily.
This solution also inherently provides two distinctive benefits. Firstly, a supporting steel structure is not required and thus eliminates the need for 4-hours fire proofing treatment on steel structures, which results in substantial costs saving. Secondly, the system offers relatively faster parking and retrieval time compared to other automatic parking systems, which reduces congestion and delay in the parking or retrieval of cars.
The whole parking installation is scheduled to complete by end 2018. Once completed, car owners would only need to drive their cars into the receiving compartment and the AGV will take over and transport it to a randomly assigned vacant parking lot. Drivers will no longer have to drive around the parking floors to look for vacant parking lots, leading to fuel saving, lesser exhaust emission and lower air pollution to the surrounding.
