South Korea has become the first airport to largely automate many of the tasks usually performed by humans in an attempt to ease the coming travel increase brought on by the Winter Olympics. They have launched a set of LG robots that they hope will be a game changer in daily operations.
LG Robots: Straight Out Of Science Fiction
Incheon International Airport has been home to one of these robots for some time, a cleaning bot that sweeps floors, picks up trash and manages minor spills. But they have expanded their line of robots to include several more cleaning bots and a series of information bots that will provide travelers with details on flights, directions and answering simple questions.
Seeing these robotic kiosks everywhere is like looking at a scene from a science fiction film. That impression is made all the more real with the cleaning robots moving from sector to sector, keeping the place immaculate in spite of the nearly 57 million annual travelers that pass through Incheon.
That number will be rising as the Winter Olympics hits Pyeongchang in February, the biggest sporting event in the country’s history. It was this event that prompted South Korea to turn to LG for solutions, as almost all traffic would be coming through that singular airport. LG hopes it will be a practical example of how their robotic technology can be applied to businesses in many areas, simplifying and automating many daily tasks necessary in the service industry.
A Look At The Robots
Each of the robots is built using slightly different features. The information bots (or Airport Guide Robots as they are currently called) are large static kiosks that are located throughout the airport. They have high definition screen and voice recognition software, responding to questions in four languages: English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. It works by connecting to a central airport server that monitors conditions in chosen locations, offers a map of the airport, and even gives recommendations for local businesses, like restaurants and shopping centers.
The Airport Cleaning Robots have an object detection feature that allows them to move around people and objects as it goes through the cleaning process. It also knows the layout of the airport and can plan its own efficient routes based off of cleaning needs as it goes through the airport.
This is an impressive step in the direction of wider robotic animation that isn’t going to stop with LG robots.
Source: LG Newsroom
