Parkers tired of stumbling through dark, dirty downtown garages in search of their cars can look forward to the garages of the future - places equipped with automated systems that park their cars for them.

While automated parking garages have been in use in Europe and Asia since the late 1950's, Leetonia, Ohio-based Robotic Parking, Inc., is now ready to bring its next-generation, patented robotics-based system of storing and retrieving cars to the United States. The firm's modular automated parking system (MAPS) integrates the automated transfer system used in automobile assembly plants with an enhanced automated warehousing technology and the latest in computer technology, including fuzzy logic.

The result is a fully automated parking structure that optimizes space use by doubling the number of cars that can be parked in a typical parking garage or by using half the space of a conventional garage to park the same number of cars. Drivers put their cars into bays on grade level, leaving them on a fully sealed, leak-proof platform where a stop sign lights up when the car is in the correct position. MAPS is activated when a driver takes a ticket, punches in a code, or presents a card. A series of three autonomous operating robots then moves the platform (with the car on it) into an open stall. Drivers use their tickets or cards to retrieve the car, which is returned to the original bay in a forward-drive position.

The system can quickly park and retrieve multiple cars at the same time, without ramps, squealing tires, or dented vehicles. Other benefits include greater security, both for vehicles and drivers, competitive construction costs, and lower long-term maintenance costs due to reduced personnel costs, insurance claims, concrete repair expenses, and lighting and ventilation needs within the parking structure. A single operator can run the entire system, which is controlled by a custom-programmed computer, and can instantly track the status of every vehicle.

A MAPS-equipped facility can be built on a site as small as 60 feet by 60 feet, in structures up to 20 stories high, above ground, underground, or both. Underground applications of the robotic parking system offer a more secure, more convenient, and less expensive (by up to 30 percent) system than a conventional garage. While the basic structure is steel with a concrete foundation, exterior facades can be customized. After installation, the system can be modified, added to, or even disassembled and relocated.

The firm opened its first fully operational garage, a demonstration facility at its factory in northeastern Ohio, last year. Last month, Robotic Parking announced that it will build America's first MAPS system in a new, 334-car garage in Hoboken, New Jersey. According to Gerhard Haag, the German engineer and entrepreneur who is president and CEO of Robotic Parking, MAPS will be to parking industry what the automated teller machine is to banking. -Julie D. Stern

Julie D. Stern is senior editor of Urban Land. For more information, visit Robotic Parking's Internet site at http://www.roboticparking.com