As different forms of artificial intelligence products explode around the world, the concept of "intelligence" has quietly swept across many industries, and the energy industry is no exception, especially the refueling industry, which has extremely high manpower requirements. website industry. Over the past 60 years, more and more global giants have joined the commercial exploration of building smart gas stations, but no company has yet been able to provide truly intelligent refueling services covering all models. When will the turning point of smart gas stations come? The well-known technology self-media team Lanxi interpreted and predicted this.
At present, "robot+" is becoming a new path for industrial upgrading. From surgical medical treatment, new agriculture to high-end manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, many innovative cases have emerged that use robots to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The "Robot+" Application Action Implementation Plan issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other 17 departments also encourages the market to promote typical application scenarios of robots with high technical levels, innovative application models and significant application results, and to carry out "Robot+" application innovation practices.
As the robot industry is in full swing, there is a daily high-frequency scenario that is closely related to you and me and can be intelligently empowered and upgraded through robots. It also has development opportunities - that is, refueling automation. In the past few decades, many technology companies have launched special research on refueling robots, but related products have always been missing a "key puzzle".
Now, this piece of the puzzle is finally being completed.
1. Refueling robot, find the "key puzzle"
Recognizing the car, opening the cover, grabbing the oil gun, filling the oil, hanging the oil gun back, closing the fuel tank, this series of actions is the refueling robot all work content. However, six seemingly simple actions have "trapped" the refueling robot industry for 60 years.
As early as 1963, Charles Mace and Lee Darwin applied for a number of patents to achieve "refueling automation" by modifying the vehicle fuel tank filling pipe. 34 years later, the smart pump produced by Shell first appeared at a gas station in Sacramento, California. Car owners can install a transponder on the windshield to provide vehicle information to the smart pump and enjoy automatic refueling services.
The first batch of "refueling automation" patents in 1963
Although these products have taken the first step in refueling automation, they have many problems at the practical level and have not gained market acceptance. favor.
Until 2008, the refueling robot company Rotec Engineering launched a refueling robot called TankPitStop and put it into use at gas stations in the Netherlands. This product has almost fully automated the refueling action, but the problem is that the product lacks vehicle identification technology to assist. Only cars registered at the robot gas station and equipped with RFID chips can enjoy the service. The price of up to 100,000 US dollars also makes this product uneconomical.
The entire robotic arm was worth US$100,000 at the time
Around 2020, more mature refueling robots appeared on the market.
Abroad, the Swedish refueling robot company Fuelmatics began commercialization attempts after being merged by AutoEnergy. The company's refueling robot has shortened the refueling time to 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and has improved safety, fuel compatibility, and payment. The experience has been improved. Domestically, Sinopec's first intelligent refueling robot has been put into trial operation at the West Gas Station of Nanning Petroleum Station in Guangxi. The product's intelligence in vehicle model judgment and human-computer interaction has been significantly improved, and the refueling time is almost comparable to manual services.
Sinopec’s first domestic intelligent refueling robot was installed at the west gas station of Nanning Petroleum South Station in Guangxi
In the following years, the refueling robot entered a rapid iteration stage, optimizing the experience and improving the performance based on the previous work. Refueling robots that work more efficiently are constantly coming out. However, the seemingly prosperous market always has a "stuck" problem - vehicle recognition rate.
Whether it is the early solution of vehicle identification using transponders, RFID chips, or database matching modes, there are respective limitations in vehicle identification. The former requires pre-installation of supporting equipment on the vehicle, while the latter is faced with a database composed of a vast sea of ??vehicles. The vehicle matching and identification process is inefficient and requires frequent updates to enter newly launched vehicle data. If the problem of vehicle recognition rate cannot be properly solved, the large-scale popularization of refueling robots will be impossible.
Just when the industry was helpless, a Chinese technology company suddenly dropped a "king bomb" on the market.
On March 16, 2023, the topic #Hangzhou officially opens the era of intelligent refueling # ranked 4th on Weibo’s Hangzhou city rankings. The refueling robot "Yikilometer Energy Arm" built by Yikmili Intelligent was successfully launched at Xiaoshan Nanyang gas station, bringing an efficient automatic refueling experience to car owners who came to experience it.
The topic #Hangzhou officially opens the era of intelligent refueling# was on Weibo hot search
According to on-site experiencers, this refueling robot can be used without modifying the original refueling equipment. , car owners can enjoy a 2-minute fully automated refueling service as long as they park their car at a designated location and complete the operation through the mobile app. The robot has also passed domestic and foreign explosion-proof certification, and every action strictly follows the gas station specifications. The most amazing thing is that the Yikilometer energy arm is almost not restricted by car models and fuel numbers, and can easily handle the refueling work of different car models.
Citizens who experienced it for the first time at Xiaoshan Nanyang gas station
How did Yikm solve the problem of vehicle recognition rate?
The key to breaking the situation is the change of technical path.
At the beginning of product design, the Yikm team was deeply aware of the limitations of the vehicle model database matching model. In order to solve the problem once and for all, the team added an artificial intelligence algorithm, aiming to use AI autonomous learning to allow the robot to "identify" the oil cap structure of different formats like humans, and adopt corresponding methods to complete the operation.
Achieving such recognition capabilities requires a large amount of data for algorithm training and scene verification. Fortunately, Yikmili has been deeply involved in the field of unmanned car washing for several years and has accumulated rich experience and models of historical models. In the "feeding" of the historical database of massive vehicle models, the vehicle coverage rate of Yikmi Energy Arm has exceeded 90%. With the "snowball effect" of autonomous learning capabilities, the coverage rate is expected to reach 100%, solving the "stuck neck" problem of refueling robots in one fell swoop.
The person in charge of Yikmili Intelligence explained the Yikmili refueling robot on site
At this point, a refueling robot that exceeds market expectations in terms of work efficiency, cost control, and scene compatibility has finally made its way onto the stage of history. , a new "human-machine collaboration" smart gas station business closed loop is also about to emerge.
2. The upgrade of human-machine collaboration scenarios opens a new chapter for smart gas stations
Data shows that the number of gas stations in China will reach 231,000 by the end of 2021, and the market is becoming saturated and competitive.
The traditional gas station model is highly dependent on site selection. Gas stations that do not have an advantage in location selection have to increase their marketing efforts and attract customers by giving away glasses of water and washing cars. This involution problem is becoming increasingly serious and has become a "ceiling" that is difficult for gas stations to break through.
At a time when thousands of industries are undergoing smart and digital upgrades, traditional gas stations also have many new development ideas: the oil product business is only basic services, including non-stop services such as retail, car maintenance, and membership accumulation. The oil business is a new way for oil stations to diversify their revenue generation.
If gas stations with limited manpower are to provide value-added services, they need some technological assistance to maximize basic refueling services. Refueling robots represented by the Yikm Energy Arm are a shortcut for upgrading traditional gas stations into smart gas stations.
Yikilometer refueling robot landing gas station
From the perspective of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, the efficiency of Yikmili energy arm to complete the refueling operation in 2 minutes is very competitive, and the overall equipment is as high as 99.6% The domestic production rate has reduced the cost to an acceptable range for gas stations. It can also eliminate overfilling and spillage when refueling and reduce oil and gas emissions. With such a refueling robot, the human-machine collaboration efficiency of gas stations will achieve a qualitative leap: the robot will digest mechanical repetitive work, and employees can focus on service upgrades, value-added business introduction and guidance, member development, and private domain operations. etc. direction.
From the perspective of scene compatibility, the Yikmizhiru energy arm does not need to modify the original facilities of the gas station, and can be seamlessly connected to any gas station scene, and can be installed and used. In subsequent product iterations, the Yikm Energy Arm can also expand the service radius of gas stations by adjusting its robotic tools to handle alternative fuels such as electricity, hydrogen, CNG and LNG.
From the perspective of intelligence, car owners can interact with the Yikm energy arm through the App in the car for the first time without any obstacles. During the refueling process, the robot moves in a small range, ensuring safety and stability.
If pedestrians break in, vehicles move, etc., the robot can proactively identify risks and take protective actions. When encountering unusual refueling situations (such as an outsider carrying a bucket to refuel, etc.), the machine will refuse to refuel. In other abnormal situations, the product can also independently implement alarm, emergency chain, pull-off, automatic shutdown and other operations after accurate calculation.
As the advantages of Yi Kilometer Energy Arm are recognized by the market, the future picture of smart petrol stations has gradually become clearer:
In daily operations, employees have more energy and Passionately introduce the latest offers and activities to car owners during refueling breaks. During the peak refueling hours and the oil price adjustment window, the refueling robot can complete the task in an orderly manner and with the highest efficiency, ensuring that urban traffic is not affected. Even if there are no employees to provide parking guidance, car owners can still complete refueling with the help of the App and the refueling robot. In remote areas or late at night when there are few manpower, the normal operation of gas stations is not a problem.
Similar plots have precedents in the chain restaurant industry: McDonald's introduced a fully automatic ordering system in 2017, which caused a qualitative change in the restaurant. The previous "messy" queuing scene has disappeared, replaced by a more comfortable and free diversified ordering environment. Whether it is manual, scanned or machine ordering, you can choose freely. When you walk into McDonald's, there will be friendly store staff to guide you and help you choose the best discount combination. The store manager will also invite you to join the welfare group and enjoy exclusive store benefits. These efficiency and service-level upgrades have enabled McDonald's stock price to go out of a "long bull" period that lasted for several years.
Similarly, when a gas station moves towards a "smart gas station", it can also have a similar performance-enhancing effect. The Yikm Energy Arm is the key puzzle piece of this smart revolution: extreme efficiency and service will continue to bring the relationship between car owners and gas stations closer, prompting the former to become members, contribute more consumption to the gas station, and enjoy an unprecedented experience.
Liyi Kilometer Refueling Robot in Smart Gas Stations
It can be said that this refueling robot that is truly commercialized, implementable, and popularized has taken a historic step forward in smart gas stations. step. I believe that in the near future, many ideas about smart gas stations will become reality with the help of this refueling robot.
This article comes from the author of Yichehao.com. The copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprinting. The content only represents the author's opinion and has nothing to do with Bitauto