Munich Airport and Lufthansa have started trailing a new humanoid robot known as Josie Pepper to provide information to passengers.

At Terminal 2, the 120cm tall robot will answer passengers’ questions about directions to their gate or information regarding a certain restaurant or shop. Josie will speak to passengers in English.

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For the next few weeks, Josie Pepper will welcome travellers to the non-public area of the terminal, which is jointly managed by Munich Airport and Lufthansa.

In her initial deployment, Josie will await passengers at the top of the ramp leading to the shuttle connecting the main terminal to the satellite building.

“The robot has the ability to learn and does not just deliver scripted texts but answers each question individually, making it a unique programme.”

This test phase will be used to show whether Josie Pepper is accepted by passengers.

Developed by the French company SoftBank Robotics, Josie Pepper is powered by IBM Watson Internet of Things (IoT) Cloud-based, artificial intelligence technologies.

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Josie Pepper’s brain is fitted with a high-performance processor with WLAN internet access. This creates a connection to a Cloud service where speech is processed, interpreted and linked to the airport data.

The robot has the ability to learn and does not just deliver scripted texts but answers each question individually, making it a unique programme.

The system has the ability to improve over time by learning from questions and relevant information to offer a more precise answer.