The next time you catch a flight from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, your luggage could be handled by the skilled hands of… a humanoid robot.
Japan Airlines is testing the use of humanoid robots to process baggage at Tokyo’s Haneda airport starting this month in a bid to tackle the growing influx of tourists to the countryin the context of what the company describes as a labor shortage in the aviation sector.
Robots appear to be G1 model from China Unitreejust over 1.30 m tall, around 35 kg in weight, a maximum speed of 2 m/s and an autonomy of 2 hours on a full charge. In the base version, each unit costs around 13,500 dollars, around 11.500 euros.
Humanoids like these can adapt to demanding tasks assigned to staff ground assistancewhich include the operation of various equipment, such as cargo carts for freight units, service ladders used as an alternative to boarding sleeves, and units supplying electrical energy and air conditioning to aircraft.
In the tests that Japan Airlines is conducting, in partnership with the Japanese GMO AI & Robotics Corporation, the robots will also load luggage on board and clean cabins, the airline says in .
Japan is facing a severe labor shortage, against a backdrop of a shrinking indigenous workforce, calls for immigration control, to which the government is responding with stricter regulations for businesspeople, highlighted in an article published on Tuesday.
To these factors, says the British newspaper, are added a potential increase in tourism and a growing need for foreign workerss to achieve the growth targets defined for 2040.
News about automation and the introduction of robots understandably raises concerns. fears about replacing jobs humans. But Japan Airlines points out that ground handling manpower is currently in short supply, in part due to the decline in the working-age population.
This issue has posed considerable difficulties in a context of increasing tourism, in particular at Haneda Airport, where more than 60 million passengers. The airline states that the objective is to increase efficiency and reduce labor requirements for ground support.
But who has seen Japanese baggage handlers in action knows that the level of demand for careful handling of luggage is very high — so these robots will have to hone their skills to treat their passengers’ belongings with the utmost care.
