Robot valet: London Gatwick airport parking to be staffed by robots

Space invaders: The robot can park cars up over 30 per cent closer than a human driver. Photo / Supplied, Stanley Robotics

Passengers leaving their car at London's Gatwick airport will soon be able to have it parked and retrieved by a robotic valet.

The wheeled tow robots will be able to park cars more quickly and more closely together than a human driver – and it is estimated the service will free up a third more space for extra cars.

Operated by app, passengers arriving from August will be able to take part in the trial.
Stanley Robotics who designed and built the robotic fork lift have named their creation Stan.

Come with me if you want to leave: The robotic parking valet "stan" in action. Photo / Supplied, Stanley Robotics

Using GPS Stan will be filling Gatwick's car parking spaces over a three-month trial.
This will take place at the airport's South Terminal long-stay carpark – which may gain over 100 extra spaces using Stan space saving robot.

"We call it a valet parking robot because people just need to drop off their car at the entrance of the car park and then they can basically leave and catch a flight, but it's doing more than just valet parking," said Stéphane Evanno co-founded of the French robotics firm, quoted by The London Evening Standard.

Similar trials have been taking place across European airports in Paris, Düsseldorf and Lyon.

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« Last week I was happy to welcome about 50 European airports representatives for a private demo of ..me! Early days but big interest already. » - Stan, with ❤️ #ProductMarketFit

A post shared by Stanley Robotics (@stanleyrobotics) on Nov 20, 2017 at 6:35am PST

The UK's Gatwick airport is graced by almost a million square meters of car parking spaces.

Split between a 300 km sq Northern terminal park and the even larger 500 km sq South terminal – the amount of parking for the busy London airport can be overwhelming.

Though retrieving a car from Gatwick Airport can be a long and arduous process without the help of a robot – it isn't often you lose your car.

However in July 2017 holiday makers returning to the airport discovered that their cars had been lost. Private parking firm Gatwick First Parking went bust leading to over 120 cars being removed and left at sites across the South of England, and passengers up in the air as to where their rides had gone.