Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    LAND available for building a parking lot is becoming scarcer and scarcer in a big city like Shenzhen, which has more than 3 million vehicles and only 1 million parking places.

    Yet parking will not be that difficult with the introduction of smart parking. The robotic automated guided vehicle (AVG) parking system is being showcased at the exhibition area of the 2016 Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week in Nanshan District.

    “With the help of an AGV robot, a driver only needs to drive the car onto a platform at the entrance of a parking lot. The robot, which could use laser navigation technology, will transfer the car into a carport in about two minutes. Car owners could also retrieve their cars through the app in about two minutes,” an employee surnamed Liu with Shenzhen-based Yeefung Automation Technology Co. Ltd. said of the system at a booth at the exhibition area at Shenzhen Bay Inno Park, the main venue of the innovation week.

    The system was developed to solve the limited parking places in big cities that have to build more multi-story parking lots in urban areas to save space.

    It features low land use, high automation, and easy parking and retrieval. The AGV robots can maximize parking space by around 20-40 percent and can simultaneously handle 100 vehicles through its movable platforms.

    As the system is laser-guided and automatically controlled by computers, the discrepancy in location precision in a parking port is less than 5 millimeters.

    Although it costs 70,000 yuan (US$10,468) per parking place, it would help operators earn profits through improved efficiency.

    Founded in 2003, Yeefung is one of the leading manufacturers of advanced automatic parking systems in China. It ventured into AGV parking in 2014 and is competing with major competitors in Germany and the U.S. At the innovation week, the company signed an agreement with Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) for research, project cooperation and student internships.

    Another product that aroused visitor interest was a coffee dispenser that used water that was filtered from the vapor in the air. The user can choose the percentage of milk and sugar through the screen of the dispenser, and in one or two minutes, a cup of coffee is ready.

    According to Shenzhen FND Technology Co. Ltd., the dispenser works on the same principles as a dehumidifier.

    The dispenser can make 100 liters of water in 24 hours and 400 cups of coffee.

    The 2016 Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week closes today.