Airport Experience® News - Retail Innovation Issue 2024

BEFORE YOU TAKE OFF

A SERVICE SURPRISE Traveling Robot Serves Up Snacks At MUC

BY SARAH BELING

Left: The “snackbots” being tested at Munich International Airport travel throughout the terminal offering packaged treats and drinks.

there have already been initial trials with a serving robot in the restaurant for transporting dishes, with cleaning robots and with an information robot for customer inquiries,” she adds. And together with Lufthansa, “we are currently planning to test service robots to support passenger processes.” The airport team had been in conversations with Robotise prior to the Covid-19 travel shutdowns, says Pichler, “because we recognized the added value and potential of this unique technology for the terminal environment.” After the pandemic, the airport looked into different types of service robotics, upon which the MUC team contacted Robotise to serve as a local provider for their spring 2024 pilot. As for whether passengers know what to make of JEEVES, Pichler says “passenger curiosity was very high from the beginning, but sales started rather subdued.” Acceptance has increased by now, and sales are going well, she says, adding that the snackbot is attracting a lot of attention, especially among families with children. Pichler and the MUC team do believe that “there is definitely a future” for self service robotics in the aviation industry, she adds. Beckmann agrees that “we also see very good feedback from the people at the gates.” Discussion around ways to further innovate and automate airport concessions is growing, says Pichler, noting that Munich Airport is testing robotic models in various operational areas. While MUC is still gathering data and evaluating the possibility of extending JEEVES’ stay, the team is also evaluating the potential of different service robots to improve passenger processes in the terminal’s gate area.

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Robotise. Laura Pichler, MUC’s innovation and digitalization manager, says the process was developed in part with a human controlled teach-in phase. “Passengers can also actively stop JEEVES,” she says. “Our passengers already make frequent use of this opportunity.” MUC is “currently testing the possibility of calling up JEEVES using a QR code, which we will be promoting at the gates,” Pichler adds. JEEVES not only senses when to stop and offer passengers a snack, but also comes equipped with sensors that automatically detect which items are selected, adds Beckmann. Items picked up by the JEEVES sensor are then placed into a virtual shopping cart through the end of each transaction, upon which the robot “automatically sends a message to our catering subsidiary when goods need to be refilled,” adds Pichler. While there was no specific customer demand for JEEVES-style technology, says Pichler, “we are seeing a steady increase in the use of service robotics in the USA and Asia. At Munich Airport, for example,

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big thing in airport concessions? Aiming to find out, the team at Munich International Airport (MUC) is now testing “snackbots” designed to seamlessly serve passengers. MUC’s snackbots – originally developed by Munich-based technology firm Robotise for use in the healthcare and hotel sectors and named JEEVES after the well-known P.G. Wodehouse character – are currently being piloted in a year-long program at the airport’s Terminal 2 Gesellschaft, which is operated by MUC and Lufthansa Airlines . Approximately 43 inches tall, the robotic server offers customers both snacks and beverages and accepts credit cards and tap-to-pay services like Apple Pay and Google Pay. To find its “clients”, JEEVES matches sensor data to an automatic map to identify its location and plan its route along the gates, stopping when its touchscreen is engaged or something crosses its path, says Clemens Beckmann, head of engineering at

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AX NEWS SEPTEMBER 2024