Motorists nostalgic for the time they could sit in their cars while attendants braved windswept petrol stations to fill their tanks may yet see the full-service days return -- compliments of a Dutch robot.
Dutch inventors unveiled on Monday a €75,000 (£56,000) car-fueling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.
A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular petrol pump, carefully opens the car's flap, unscrews the petrol tank cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it toward the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.
"I was on a farm and I saw a robotic arm milking a cow. 'If a robot can do that, then why can't it fill a car tank?' I thought," said developer and petrol station operator Nico van Staveren. "Drivers needn't get dirty hands or smell of petrol again."
He hopes to introduce the "TankPitstop" robot in a handful of Dutch stations by the end of the year. It works for any car whose tank can be opened without a key and whose contours and dimensions have been recorded to avoid scratching.
Asked whether he would trust his car to a robotic garage attendant, Jelger De Kroon, filling his black Alfa Romeo at a nearby petrol station, said, "Why not? I guess I could keep my hands free and clean, but I'd hope they have good insurance."
Story Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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