A ballet of automation and IT orchestration
Instead of driving up and down parking garage ramps in search of an open space, how about driving into a street-level “terminal” and letting an automated valet system do the parking for you? Robotic Parking Systems makes this possible in cities around the world today, relying on the unmatched uptime assurance of Stratus Technologies to keep the car park humming with uninterrupted precision night and day.
Taking up only half the space of a traditional car park, a Robotic Parking Systems garage is a ballet of automation and IT orchestration. Sophisticated software controls the platforms, lifts, motors, sensors, and other mechanical gear that transport vehicles to an open slot in a multi-story steel shelving system. Different size bays accommodate sedans and SUVs, improving space utilization. Retrieving a car takes under three minutes and each entry/exit gate can handle 30 cars per hour (correction – 45 cars per hour) on average. Its largest facility yet — a 1,200-car garage — is under construction in Dubai, UAE.
The entire system is engineered with extreme redundancy to guarantee uninterrupted operation, with as many as four back-ups per system component. Duplicate mechanical components and systems ensure that if one machine requires
maintenance or repair, a back-up is already operating to keep cars moving in and out of the garage. The same philosophy applies to IT with two complete systems including redundant Stratus ftServer servers, programmable logic controls, and network cabling ensuring a worst case scenario — cars can’t be retrieved because of a system failure — doesn’t happen. Backing all that up is an emergency power generator with automatic transfer switch that kicks in if there’s a power outage.
“True redundancy translates into a greater level of reliability and ensures uninterrupted operations,” said Robotic Parking Systems CEO Royce Monteverdi. “No single failure will ever result in the system being inoperable. Uptime of
the system is unprecedented.”