Japan Airlines Starts Pilot Project of Using Humanoid Robots for Handling Baggage

Japan Airlines begins testing humanoid robots at Haneda Airport to automate baggage handling and combat the country's growing aviation labor shortages.

Japan Airlines, the flag carrier of Japan, recently announced its plans to pilot the trial of humanoid robots from the beginning of May to test their effectiveness in performing baggage handling operations. This is expected to provide much-needed relief to the country’s baggage handlers who would soon work alongside their new robotic “colleagues” if the trial proves successful. This step will also play its part in addressing Japan’s chronic labor shortage. The Chinese-made humanoids are deployed to move passengers’ luggage and cargo amid short recharge breaks on the Haneda Airport’s tarmac, which sees a footfall of over 60 million travelers a year.

Furthermore, Japan Airlines Ltd. (JAL) and the partnering Japan Airlines GMO Internet Group aim for the experiment ending in 2028 to facilitate increased handling capacity of the Haneda Airport to meet the projected rise in inbound tourism and a further increase in labor shortage from current levels. Demonstrating the robots’ functionality to the media this week, a 130 cm-tall humanoid was programmed to push cargo onto a conveyor belt next to a JAL passenger plane while waving to an unseen colleague. Commenting on the development, the president of JAL Ground Service, Yoshiteru Suzuki, noted that physically demanding work being performed by robots would “inevitably reduce the burden on workers and provide significant benefits to employees”.

However, Suzuki assured all stakeholders that humans would continue to perform key tasks such as safety management. According to CIO Bulletin, the introduction of humanoid robots in baggage handling operations is an innovative step by Japan Airlines to address the effects of labor shortages due to the country’s ageing and declining population. These robots would prove to be useful in operating continuously for two to three tasks, with firms planning to deploy them for a variety of use cases, such as cleaning aircraft cabins.