USA-ROBOT/CALIFORNIA Robot flies to Germany as airline passenger from Los Angeles

Record ID: 401943

  • Title: USA-ROBOT/CALIFORNIA Robot flies to Germany as airline passenger from Los Angeles
  • Date: 16th December 2014
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 15, 2014) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF ATHENA ROBOT ESCORTED INTO LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BY ALEXANDER HERZOG, DOCTORAL STUDENT AND JEANNETTE BOHG, SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST WITH THE MAX PLANCK SOCIETY ATHENA ROBOT WAITING TO CHECK INTO FLIGHT (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDER HERZOG
  • Embargoed: 31st December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAD72ZW1R3MOZR25QVM0PK5XUQI
  • Story Text: A humanoid robot with a head, hands and feet became what was billed as the first robot traveling as a paid passenger on an airline, boarding a Lufthanasa flight for Germany on Monday (December 15) afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
    The robot, named Athena, created a scene at the Tom Bradley Terminal as she was pushed in a wheelchair up to the counter to pick up her ticket to Frankfurt.
    Built by Salt Lake City, Utah, company Sarcos, the robot was purchased by Germany's Max Planck Society, which along with researchers at the University of Southern California are trying to make Athena do tasks too dangerous for humans, like cleanup after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan.
    "Well for instance, if you imagine the scenario in Fukushima, this is a very dangerous environment for humans so we don't want actually humans to go there and, well, sacrifice their life in the end," said Max Planck doctoral student Alexander Herzog, who was pushing Athena through the airport. "We would like to have a robot that can achieve the same tasks, like opening valves, opening doors and maybe cleaning up."
    Right now, Athena can do little more than sit and bask in attention. The software to make her legs move and stand is still in the works, though her arms can operate and her mouth glows blue on a white head fitted with cameras and sensors.
    "Well, right now it's very tough to actually make a robot do motions like a human does because right now we know very little about human motions. We would like to be able to replicate these motions on a robot and make it do this autonomously and learn these motions. I think this is very exciting and hopefully at some point it will achieve useful tasks that can help humans," said Herzog.
    Athena got an economy ticket but still enjoyed special treatment, including a cut to the front of the ticket line in the first-class lane. And while she didn't have to go through the regular metal detector, the Transportation Security Administration had a special electronic pat-down awaiting, according to LAX spokeswoman Nancy Suey Castles.
    As for the flight, Athena was strapped into a seat like a regular passenger, but was put in the off position, accompanied all the way to her new laboratory home in Germany by Herzog and Jeannette Bohg, senior research scientist at the Max Planck Society.
    Athena was assigned a seat originally booked by a family traveling to Croatia.
    "It took our originally booked seats but that's ok and the kids are excited. They're looking forward to sitting next to the robot so we're looking forward to that," said Julia Ljubicic.
    Athena could have been shipped in a big box like any other electronic gear but her escorts wanted to make sure she was taken care of and it was cheaper than sending her in a box.
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