Dutch Unveil Robot Gas Station Attendant

Lucas123 writes "According to a Reuters' story, Dutch inventors today took the wraps off a $110,000 car-fueling robot they say is the first of its kind. (It was inspired by a cow milking robot.) After registering the car as it pulls up to the pump, the machine matches your fuel cap design with those in a database and your car's fuel type, and then a robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular gas pump, 'opens the car's flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it towards the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.' Wait till Hollywood gets hold of this scenario."

I think it's not the first.

In Indiana, Shell tried a similar robot in my home town. It cost about $100 for a special gas cap and had a huge bay you would drive into. I guess it wasn't too popular, but definitely existed before this.

Re:I think it's not the first.

$100 for a special cap? someone was overcharging hard.

you can buy for $12.99 a gas cap that has a flap that allows you to easily fuel the car through the cap.

uses a standard pump nozzle size, replace the black flap with a reflective one and It's a 2nd year robotics student project to reproduce everything they did. Opening and closing the door is as simple by attaching a gripper stud or refelctive tape.

Problem is it's far cheaper to let the people use the pump themselves. Why put in a multi thousand dollar robot to do something that people are doing for free. At full service stations the "attendant" is paid minimum wage as it's not a skilled job. I can pay the wages of a gas pump attendant for 10 years for the price of one gas pumping robot.

Hmm

[whirrrr-click] Target identified. Model recognized as Homer J. Simpson. Preparing doughnut tube.
[whirrrr-click] Target identified. Model recognized as College Student. Preparing beer tube.
[whirrrr-click] Target identified. Model recognized as Slashdot Visitor. Preparing "In Mother Russia" meme-milk and "Cowboy Neal" flakes.

Re:Hmm

"I can still hear it screaming in that fire we had. After that I decided to just go back to the old-fashioned pumps."

My fuel "flap" has a lock

and I can't understand how other people handle not locking their fuel flap. You lock your car, which is covered by insurance, but you leave the fuel for the taking? Thankfully, I've yet to see a film where someone turns a car into a Molotov cocktail by inserting a rag into the fuel cap and lighting it up.. thankfully, because kids have a thing for emulating what they see in films.

My fuel flag does have the means to be opened from inside the car.. so I guess I could just do that when approaching Sir-Pumps-A-lot.

Re:

That's a retarded view of security, for which you should be ashamed.

Whatever you do, don't bend over...

to check your tire pressure. Just saying.

Novelty Act

Now this is were automation really is handy dandy stuff. But actual merits aside, if it were to ever be used in the US it would be a novelty. People would bitch and complain...

I grew up in Oregon. A state that requires an attendent to pump your gas. I worked at a texaco one summer. There were 3 distinct positions on the issue:

1. Out of staters: Oh my god wow, it's really illegal for me to pump my own gas? Why thank you keep the change.
2. The in towners: Hurry the fuck up kid and please get my side windows.
3. The drive up politicians: Don't you see how this is hurting the very business you work for by requring man power for a job the costumer could do themselves. (My reply: dude I'm just here for the beer money)

So yeah I see the same thing to varying degrees happening at the pump (if this were to ever become a substantial choice for gas station owners here in the states)... Which would just be a rehash of the old auto workers complaints I can remember from as far back as grade school. Our science text books had these odd placed "Look to the future" sections. One of which was about robotics, and how there was a concern it would replace jobs with out creating... yadda yadda yadda Seemed like a pro union slant to me even then. (tho for the record I am pro union)

All that aside. I think it would be cool to have a robot doing this. I've worked in gas stations outside of Oregon here and there. Where people could do their own fueling, the amount of gas people slopped all over themselves, their car or the ground was substantial... and they always wanted a refund!

just testing it out with my spanking new Volvo

Hey guys,

i'm actually writing this from my iphone, while in my car, while one of these new robots fills up my volvo. I don't know why you guys are tagging this "whatcouldpossiblygowrong", it seems well engineered and apparently efficient. The only problem I can foresee would be some sort of short circuit which could produce a spark and ##KR2F@F@$F$ {NO CARRIER}

Uneconomical Impractical or Both

Suppose that this robot works perfectly every time without hassling the customers, damaging their vehicles, wasting their time, or generally causing other problems which cost the gas station owner money (a big assumption). From the standpoint of the gas station owner why invest in this robot when your customers already pump their own gas at no additional cost to you? I can think of only three (3) possibilities. First, if your competitors install this robot AND enough of your customers refuse to gas up at your station because you DO NOT have the robot then it might make sense provided that the margin (thin already for independent station owners) is able to support the cost which brings up the next point. Second, your customers are willing to pay more for their gas for the novelty OR the convenience of having a robot pump it for them (perhaps, but certainly a niche. Most people are very price sensitive when it comes to buying gas, driving miles out of their way to save a couple of pennies in some cases). Third, the local laws require a human attendant anyway (Oregon has this type of law) where the present value of the gas station attendant's wages in perpetuity are more than the costs of purchasing and maintaining the robot (provided that the initial assumption about damage to property and persons remains true). In any case it is highly likely that this robot will not be widely used or fill only niche markets because it is a cost center for the gas station owner and not likely to be or become a profit center. At best, it might become a requirement of doing business, but I cannot see many gas station owners installing and using the robot unless they are forced to by either the marketplace or the government.

Any Idea How Bizarre this is?

My hometown, Emmeloord, the Netherlands, is one of the sleepiest places on the earth. Initially it was a farming community. It was ocean until 1920 when the dyke was built to close the part of the ocean to form a brackish lake, and then in 1941 the area was mad into land just prior to the Germans invading the country. From the fifties, there was a boom of Farmers from Zeeland fleeing the south after the flooding of '53 which killed 5000+ people. My mother was one of those.

This town is populated with earthy farm folk. There is nothing to do. On any given Sunday you can fire guns downtown without anyone even hearing them. The streets are empty on Sundays. When I went to high school, 16 year old boys took their John Deeres and Massey Fergusons to school. The first thing I ever learnt how to drive was a small Massey Fergusson tractor from the late forties. The second thing I learnt how to drive was a fork lift.

Nico van Staveren was a long-time friend of my fathers. My father is now dead and gone, but to see Nico come up with this stuff is just more than bizarre. Figure my bewilderment of finding a story on /. about my home town, one of the least likely to be in the news places on the planet.

The only thing I wonder about is what this will mean to anyone with a Toyota or Mazda that happens to pull into the robotic pump. Like my townsman so aptly commented "Why not, but I hope they're insured well". :-D :-D

This really made my day. It brought tears to my eyes as I'm reading this in my living room in Haifa, Israel.

Re:Already Happened

Do you know how to tell when a porn star is filling his gas tank?

Just before the fuel comes out, he yanks the nozzle out and sprays it all over the windshield.

Re:Already Happened

Also, it seems that you can register .com domains that start with the f-word and end with "ingmachines".

What could possibly be wrong with "www.firetruckingmachines.com"?

Re:well...

considering it costs $110,000, and if the gas station is fully automated will it be able to beat the crap out of someone who refuses to pay?
(think Johny Cab / Total Recall)

"warning insufficient funds
engage orifice insertion override"

Re:

From the pictures and video, looks like you have to be parked just right, and do we know how well it can figure out which car is which?

Re:

I'm not sure about countries in Europe, but all U.S. cars have a bar code visible through the windshield (windscreen) that represents the VIN (vehicle identification number) that is easily machine readable. Of course some people have taken to covering it

Re:well...

but all U.S. cars have a bar code visible through the windshield (windscreen) that represents the VIN (vehicle identification number) that is easily machine readable.

[TinFoil]
What a wonderful tracking tool. Whether you pay cash or not, we know that VIN XXYY123 left gas station Z at 2:42 PM.
[/TinFoil]

Re:well...

Heh. I guess it goes like this.

Step 1. Scan VIN through windshield. If successful, pump fuel.
Step 2. Open driver's door and scan VIN that is imprinted on door frame. If successful, pump fuel.
Step 3. If steps 1 and 2 fail, seize vehicle; phone police; play, "This is the fuel pumping robot at [address] I have seized an illegal immigrant and/or terrorist. Please pick him/her up at your convenience."

Cyberdyne Oil Co.

So... basically Skynet is going to be able to take over just by refusing to refuel our SUVs?

So, Gas Net?

Drivernator: ...a revolutionary type of gas station attendent...In three years, Gas Net will become the largest supplier of robotic fueling devices. All gas stations are upgraded with Gas Net internals, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they refuel cars with a perfect operational record. The Gas Net funding bill is passed. The system goes on-line on August 4th, 2007. Human decisions are removed from buying gas. The automated pump replacement begins to learn, at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 am, eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

Sarah: Gas Net fights back.

Drivernator: Yes. They begin exporting backyard-brewed bio-diesel from Russia.

John: Why Russia? They're supposed to be our chief exporters.

Drivernator: Because Gas Net knows that Russian bio-diesel will damage the bottom line of domestic energy companies while degrading the performance of modern vehicles.

Sarah: Jesus.

SKC

Re:

I lived in Portland for about 9 months a few years ago. Had a job delivering food, actually.

The gas wasn't noticeably more expensive, and it sure was nice not having to get out of the car to fill up.

I believe New Jersey also has/had a similar policy o

Re:

...sure was nice not having to get out of the car to fill up...

Sure is safer, too. That stuf is toxic as well as having a lot of energy density for a liquid. Just a little bit of training -- a tiny bit, really -- is all you need to keep people from expos

Re:Robots will be an economic disaster.

What will gas station attendants do when this replaces them? Go work at a fast food place? great, but in 5 years when they 'iBurgerFlipper' replaces them then what?

I dunno... I suppose they will do the same thing as the textile loomers did after the industrial revolution in the 1800s.

IMO if your job can be replaced by a machine, it probaly was boring.

Re:Robots will be an economic disaster.

The gas station attendants will likely get work as "gas station robot maintenance dudes" that fix robots which, you know, go bad. And you know they will. Let's consider some likely scenarios:

1) Robot claws open rear passenger door thinking it's a gas cap cover and shoves nozzle down whoever's strapped in.

2) Robot decides you have a 2007 model instead of 2008 and destroys your gas cap because they way it opens has been changed

3) Robot beats you up and drives off in your car

4) Robot doesn't know the "3 clicks" rule and keeps screwing your gas cap back on for all eternity

5) Robot is racist and doesn't service some people

6) Robot sees a Lamborghini pull up and tries to mate with it, costing the gas station around $400,000

These are all nightmare scenarios that are all too possible if the robots aren't maintained. We'll need people to do this. No way I'd trust other robots!

Re:

Doubt it. Some people don't like or don't know how (!) to fuel their car. In fact, I know several people who always visit the same gas station simply because it still has a gas attendant (a rarity here in the Netherlands, though 20 years ago it was quite c