Haneda airport will start testing humanoid robots, because everything that gets a plane flying was designed for our species
Your next holiday memory might involve humanoid robots losing your luggage.
The Register offers that grim prediction after Japan Airlines on Monday announced it will trial humanoid robots for tasks including loading and unloading baggage, cleaning aircraft cabins, and general duties.
The carrier notes that Japan suffers from labor shortages and that the myriad pieces of equipment used airside at airports were all designed to be used by humans. It therefore makes sense to try humanoid robots that can use existing tools, rather than try to develop specific bots for each job.
The airline will commence trials in May and keep trying bots for two years, at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport – the nation’s busiest thanks to its location close to the city center.
Japan Airlines will work with a local company called GMO which already offers four humanoid bots – none with battery life beyond three hours. Just one of the company’s bots, the Walker E, appears suitable for outdoor use – an important consideration given Tokyo winters can bring occasional snow while the city’s summers are infamously hot and humid.
The airline says the aim of its experiment is “to realize a sustainable operational structure through labor savings and workload reduction.” That’s a worthy goal in Japan, where the ageing population means workers are hard to find and surging tourism numbers mean airports need more people on the ground.
For what it’s worth, robots are already a famous feature of Japanese airports – or at least their business class lounges, where automatic beer-pouring machines have greeted thirsty travelers for years as shown in the video below. ®