Air New Zealand is trialling a new social robot that will help passengers check-in and board at Sydney Airport.
The airline is partnering with Commonwealth Bank of Australia in a five-day experiment using Chip CANdroid, which the bank introduced within its Sydney Innovation Lab late last year.
Passengers will interact with Chip, who will check them into their flights and point them in the right direction.
By holding up their boarding pass to Chip’s eyes, the robot can let them know if they’re in the right place.
A touch screen on the robot’s chest will allow passengers to complete their check-in.
Advanced humanoid robot
“People interact with them in a very social and sometimes emotional way, which means they can enhance experiences in ways that other technologies are unable to do,” said Tiziana Bianco, the bank’s general manager of Innovation Labs. “Chip is one of the most advanced humanoid robots in the world, and is perfect for our work aimed at understanding how humans and robots interact in dynamic social spaces.”
Passengers can see and interact with the robot until tomorrow (August 25) at Air New Zealand’s check-in desks and select departure gates.
Air New Zealand is one of many airlines now using artificial intelligence to improve its customer service.
Earlier this year the airline introduced a chatbot called Bravo Oscar Tango that is now learning to answer 900 new questions a day.
The number of robots trialled at airports (and ports) is increasing and includes:
- AnBot at Shenzhen Airport
- ASIMO at Tokyo Narita
- Athena at Los Angeles
- EMIEW3 at Tokyo Haneda
- GLAdys at Glasgow
- Nao for Japan Airlines at Tokyo Haneda
- Leo at Geneva
- Norma, Amelia, and Piper at San Jose
- Pepper for EVA at Taipei
- ‘Sheldon’ at Indianapolis
- Spencer at Amsterdam Schiphol
- Troika at Seoul Incheon
- Zunpeng Xiaobao for Shenzhen Airlines
