Danish company Autofuel has developed a robotic arm capable of refueling a variety of vehicles at gas stations without any kind of human assistance. The Neste fuel station in Finland is currently the only place in the world where you can have your car refueled by a robot. It’s the pilot site chosen by Autofuel to test its futuristic refueling system — a robotic arm that can locate a car’s fuel tank door, select the right type of fuel, and operate the pump without any kind of human assistance.
Autofuel’s solution consists of a modular (组合式的) robotic arm housed within the fuel pump, and a series of sensors and cameras designed to keep things running smoothly. Cameras detect the vehicle’s registration number so the system is able to detect what kind of fuel it requires. Another camera directs the car to stop in a certain area so that the arm can easily reach the fuel tank door. The arm itself then starts to move, opening the door, selecting the right fuel nozzle (喷嘴) and finally refueling the car.
The whole thing looks great in promotional videos, but after one of them recently went viral on the Internet, people brought up quite a few valid concerns. In order for the entire process to work, one needs to have their vehicle registered with Autofuel. This is basically the only way for the system to recognize the type of car, the right fuel, and the payment options. That’s information a lot of people aren’t likely to share for something as trivial as refueling. Then there is the matter of the fuel tank cap. How does it deal with the various fuel caps still in use by many car manufacturers? We couldn’t find an answer to that question, but we assume that Autofuel is relying on the fact that the cars of the future will no longer need fuel tank caps.
Although it may be a while before refueling robots become mainstream, Autofuel believes they will become extremely useful when truly autonomous vehicles finally hit the roads. With robots and AI becoming such a big part of our lives lately, it’s easy to imagine solutions like Autofuel becoming typical in the near future.
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