FIRST PAID ROBOT TRAVELLER

A humanoid robot with a head, hands and feet and wearing stylish red sneakers boarded a flight for Germany at Los Angeles International Airport on 22nd Dec, becoming what was billed as the first robot travelling as a paid passenger on an airline. The robot, named Athena, created a scene at the Tom Bradley International Terminal as she was pushed in a wheelchair up to the Lufthansa counter to pick up her ticket to Frankfurt. Television crews swarmed, camera flashes went off and people aimed their cell-phone cameras at her, exclaiming: “It’s a robot!” Athena could have been shipped in a big box like any other electronic gear, but the scientists “wanted to see how humans responded to a robot sitting in a plane.”