Glasgow introduces GLAdys – its robot staff member

GLAdys will be based in the main departures area and has initially been programmed to entertain passengers of all ages as they pass through the airport.

Passengers can choose from three main entertainment functions.

• GLAdys will sing and dance to three Christmas songs – Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rocking around the Christmas Tree and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
• GLAdys will keep young passengers entertained by telling three festive tales – Twas the Night before Christmas, When Santa Claus Comes and Santa’s Workshop.
• GLAdys  will also pose for selfies with passengers thanks to a hand-mounted selfie camera. When a passenger is happy with the selfie photograph it can be sent to their own email address and/or to Glasgow’s digital team for use on the airport’s social media social media channel with a #GLAdysRobot hashtag.

The robot is being escorted by Glasgow Airport’s ambassador staff who deal with customer service.

Glasgow doesn’t say what the future options are for GLAdys. But robots can record passenger habits and preferences and other information for future use.

Supplier

The airport doesn’t say who the supplier is but the robot does look very similar to the one introduced by EVA Airways at its Taipei airports earlier in December.

Those robots were developed by Japanese tech company Softbank and manufactured by Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn).

The future

In Taiwan, the robots welcome passengers and tell them where food, duty-free and shopping areas can be found. They can interact with passengers, shake hands, chat and play games.

They scan codes on boarding passes, display boarding gates and boarding times, as well as inform passengers of the weather conditions at their destination.

The robots, can record passenger habits and preferences and other information for future use.

Mark Johnston, operations director at Glasgow Airport:

“We are always looking for new and innovative ways in which we can further enhance customer experience at Glasgow and believe the introduction of GLAdys to be a first for a UK airport.

“Last year we launched our virtual assistant, affectionately dubbed ‘Holly the Hologram’, at various points across the airport and she has since proved extremely popular with our passengers.

“GLAdys will be a fantastic addition to the terminal team and will prove to be an extremely popular feature with passengers commuting through the airport. She’s sure to be a firm favourite with our younger passengers this month thanks to her repertoire of festive songs and stories.”

Airline and airport robots worldwide