WIRE)--Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (Nasdaq: VLDR, VLDRW) today announced a multi-year agreement to provide its lidar sensors to Stanley Robotics for an automated valet parking solution. The innovative service uses autonomous handling robots to help car parks to improve the customer experience and increase the number of vehicles that can be stored. Stanley Robotics is working with Velodyne's Puck and Velarray M1600 lidar sensors to provide perception and navigation capabilities that enable its all-electric Stan robot to operate autonomously and safely. The sensors provide real-time 3D perception data for localization, mapping, object classification and object tracking. Velodyne's power-efficient sensors support Stan robots in a wide range of challenging environmental conditions, including varied temperature, lighting and precipitation.

After a few years of testing its robot valets, Stanley Robotics will officially put its fleet to use at France's Lyon-Saint-Exupéry airport this week. If you plan to park in the robot-lot anytime soon, you'll leave your car in a special garage-like box. One of Stanley's robots will literally pick up your car and deliver it to a spot. When you return, the system will use your flight information to determine when to bring your car back to a box, where you can pick it up and drive off. As the company says, that should mean no waiting or searching the parking lot.

Passengers heading to Gatwick airport and leaving their car there will soon have it whisked away by a robot valet. The fleet of droids will put cars closer to one another than is possible with human drivers and therefore be able to fit a third more cars in the same area. A trial is starting in August which will see customers leave their car in a drop-off zone before summoning a robot through a designated app. Military grade GPS will guide the machine to the car where forklift-like equipment will approach the car from the front, slide under the car's body and move it to a specific spot. Passengers heading to Gatwick airport and leaving their car there will soon have it whisked away by a robot valet.

A French startup company has developed an automated valet service operated by a robot. The robot, named Stan, doesn't require a customer's car keys - instead, it picks up your vehicle and takes it a secure car park. The system is also connected to the customer's flight details, so their car is ready to be picked up when they return, and it can also maximize space by double parking in front of vehicles that don't need to be picked up immediately. The robotic system, designed and developed by Stanley Robotics, has already been adopted by Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. The company just raised $4 million (€3.6 million) from Elaia Partners, Bpifrance and Idinvest Partners.