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This airport robot will take your bags at the curb, check you in, and send you on your way

airport check in robot
SITA
The INSIDER Summary:

  • SITA Lab is making traveling easier with these two robots, Leo and Kate, that will make check-in faster for travelers.
  • Leo will roll up to passengers outside the airport and will carry out the entire check in process as Kate will handle the check in.
  • Leo is undergoing a pilot period at the Geneva airport and the program could be expanded if successful.
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These robots will never let go of your luggage — until it’s time.

Leo and KATE are two robots from SITA Lab that aim to make check-in a faster and more independent process for travelers.

airport check in robot
SITA/YouTube

Leo deals with the entire baggage process. When Leo rolls up to passengers outside the airport, they can start by placing luggage to check inside the robot’s storage compartment. Passengers then scan their boarding pass, and Leo prints out a sticker to place on the bag.

Finally, the robot closes the luggage compartment, prints out a receipt for the bag tag and rolls off to the baggage handling area, where someone will then take the bag and direct it towards the right flight.

KATE’s purview is check-in. The robot is capable of identifying congested areas in the airport and rolling over there to help shorten passenger wait times.

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Using flight and passenger flow information, KATE knows where additional check-in stations would be useful. Once the robot is stationary, passengers can scan their passports or boarding passes to check in and then proceed straight to security.

Both machines are equipped with “obstacle avoidance technology” and use Wi-Fi to connect to airport systems. The robots are also capable of identifying what they need and will “automatically return to their docking stations when they are low on power or need to be resupplied with boarding passes or bag tags,” according to SITA Lab.

Leo is undergoing a pilot period at the Geneva airport and the program could be expanded if successful.

But should both Leo and KATE ever be deployed at the same airport, the check-in process could be faster than ever, possibly making passengers feel like they're king of the world.

 

Read the original article on Travel + Leisure. Copyright 2017. Follow Travel + Leisure on Twitter.
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