NETHERLANDS: No need to get out of the car to refuel - new Dutch robot can do it for you

Record ID: 401789

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: No need to get out of the car to refuel - new Dutch robot can do it for you
  • Date: 10th February 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) NICO VAN STRAVEREN, CO-DEVELOPER OF TANK PIT STOP ROBOT, SAYING: "Four years ago I met Henk Hofman, he developed a milking system, automatically, with a standard robot arm and I was triggered by that and I see, I saw in the past some, some trials to make a tank robot. Um, and I was thinking when a robot, a standard robot can milk cows, then there is n
  • Embargoed: 25th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Netherlands
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Science / Technology,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA4WA6GIBZ5FKNGABMBDM9SEXY8
  • Story Text: Ever hankered for the days when you could drive to the petrol station and a friendly attendant would fill up your car for you with a smile whatever the weather? Well the good times could be back with a new Dutch invention: the petrol pump robot.
    Motorists nostalgic for the time they could sit tight while attendants braved windswept garage forecourts to fill their tanks may yet see those heady days return -- compliments of a Dutch robot.
    'Tankpitstop', as the developers call it, is a 75,000 euro (111,100 US dollars) Dutch invention which will do it all for you. The company that unveiled the robot in the Dutch town of Emmerloord on Monday (February 4), says this invention is the first of its kind.
    It works by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.
    After a few gentle bumps on the car as it searches for the door to the car's petrol tank the machine finally gets the hang of it.
    The system works for any car whose petrol tank can be opened without a key and whose contours and dimensions have been recorded in the database, thus avoiding any accidental scratches by the robot.
    Cows are what gave co-developer Nico van Straverent and his partner Henk Hofman the idea. Modern farming methods have mechanised the process of milking to such an extent that farmers no longer need to do it by hand, using robots to carry out the process from the beginning to the end, thus maximising production and cutting down on labour.
    "Four years ago I met Henk Hofman, he developed a milking system, automatically, with a standard robot arm and I was triggered by that and I see, I saw in the past some, some trials to make a tank robot. Um, and I was thinking when a robot, a standard robot can milk cows, then there is no problem to tank vehicles," Straverent says.
    But apart from catering to the incredibly lazy, incredibly busy or those who just like to the luxury of having things done for them, why should anyone go for this rather expensive gadget? Well Hofman says one good reason is that the drive for cleaner cars in the fight against global warming will see a huge increase in the type of fuels available to the greener cars soon to come on the market.
    It will no longer be down to two petrol and one diesel choice. Hofman says there will be around 8 types of fuel for the consumers to choose from and that machine can decide for you.
    "I think this will be more useful in the future, because of more types of fuel for cars, now we have four or five different things. People are making mistakes, when in the future when you have eight or ten different fuel types, its very good that the robot knows exactly which fuel you should have," Hofman says.
    It remains to be seen what customers actually think of this and whether they would trust a robot to open the hatch, pour the petrol in the right place and make sure they put in the right type of fuel.
    But at least they can stay clean, dry and cosy whilst the job is being done for them.
    Hofman hopes to introduce the "Tankpitstop" robot in a handful of Dutch filing stations by the end of the year.
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