An automated parking proposal usually opens with the line "the same site holds more cars". That claim is worth checking, but it is not enough to make a decision. Users do not buy a slot on a drawing; they need to drop off and retrieve their car on time. If everyone leaves work at the same moment, the capacity of the transfer bays and the robot cycle time determine the queue more than the total number of slots in the tower.
Start from the demand profile, not the number of levels
Collect the number of vehicles arriving and leaving per time interval, the ratio of hourly to monthly tickets, customer drop-off time, vehicle dimensions and the share of electric vehicles. A parking project for a hospital, office or shopping center will have a different peak-hour curve. Using the daily average number of vehicles to size the equipment can easily produce a facility that is completely full but slow at the most critical moment.
The transfer bay is the visible bottleneck
Each bay needs time for the car to enter the correct position, the driver to leave the bay, the safety door to close, and the equipment to take the car and release the bay for the next one. The design must state how many bays operate at the same time, where the off-site queuing area is, and how much capacity remains when one bay is down. If the queue spills onto the existing road, that is a site layout error, not just a dispatch software error.
Structure and MEP must follow the machine, not the rendering
Vehicle loads, dynamic equipment loads, anchor points, maintenance clearances, power, ventilation and fire protection conditions must be fixed for the specific system. The EV charging plan needs to specify the number of charging slots, simultaneous charging capacity and how to gain access during an incident. AI images can help visualize the building massing and access flows, but they do not prove capacity, safety or approvability.
The cost per parking slot is not the cost per vehicle served
Rotary towers, mechanical stackers and AGV systems should be compared on the same site, the same peak-hour requirements and the same operating period. The capex table must include the building, equipment, fire protection, power, software and maintenance; the cash flow must account for ticket prices, utilization, downtime, operating staff and equipment replacement. A system with more slots but high costs and long customer waits may be worse than a simpler one.
What deliverables should the project owner require? Entry/exit traffic diagram, peak-hour queue chart, number of transfer bays, a scenario with one unit down, a fire protection–rescue matrix and lifecycle cash flow. CGD can handle the building works and the investment analysis, while the equipment supplier is responsible for the specifications and acceptance of the machine system.
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Number of spaces, peak-hour pick-up/drop-off rate → number of AGVs, lifts, cabins, waiting time.
AS/RS warehouse · AGV parking →Block diagrams and renderings for automated high-bay warehouses and AGV parking.
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