A few days ago, a Russian airline tested a robot “flight attendant” on a flight. Perhaps due to it being in the testing phase, there hasn’t been much “promotion” around this flight, and thus, there is little content available online. However, from its appearance, it seems to be a robot developed by Yuzhu Robotics.
During this flight, the robot “flight attendant” conducted a “safety demonstration” (which is the standard procedure where flight attendants guide passengers to the safety exits and demonstrate the use of safety equipment after everyone is seated). From the video, it can be seen that while the robot’s movements are not as smooth as those of a human, it can still perform basic demonstration actions.
Additionally, the robot “flight attendant” is capable of providing “voice explanations” and engaging in simple interactions with passengers. Its current role is that of a “crew assistant,” exploring the integration of humanoid robots into airline services to enhance the passenger experience.
How should one put it? At least for now, the robot flight attendant is more like an atmosphere creator, providing limited functionality. However, it is hard to predict what roles it might take on in the future.
For instance, when hotel robots first emerged, many thought they were useless. But over time, they have proven to be an important “role” in hotels. On one hand, they help save operational costs, and on the other, they allow hotel staff to focus on more important and specific tasks, such as delivering items, which are purely time-consuming and physically demanding repetitive tasks that can be handled by hotel robots. From their inception to now, they have become indispensable.
At the very least, the robot flight attendant will certainly be able to handle tasks beyond just demonstration and voice explanations, such as serving meals. If necessary, even cooking could be feasible. Beyond the aspect of “food,” it could also extend to other areas, such as cleaning the onboard restrooms, which are considered dirty jobs. In other words, tasks that are not overly complex may eventually be completed by robots.
If we reach that stage, then human flight attendants can devote more energy to providing services, although the impact on their experience may not be very noticeable.
For airlines, they would only need to assign a few crew members at the doors, and wide-body aircraft could easily use robots as a supplement to the crew. International flights would no longer require crew rotations, as robot flight attendants could operate from start to finish. All of this would only require a one-time investment upfront, which is highly “tempting” for airlines looking to save on operational costs!
This technology, if matured, holds the potential to optimize human resource allocation and improve operational efficiency, especially for low-cost airlines.
For passengers, this represents a novel experience and opens up more possibilities for the future of air travel.
However, while being optimistic, we must also consider reality. The reality is that this is merely a test. The tasks that robots can currently perform are very limited; for example, they do not participate in the service of meals and beverages during flights, and they currently lack complete control over battery management. Therefore, there is still a long way to go before robots can regularly operate in passenger cabins.