It was the proudest moment for all the people who work in the robotics arena as ‘Athena’, a humanoid airport boarded a fight for Germany at the Los Angeles International airport on December 15, 2014.
‘Athena’ is created by German roboticists, and it is now the first humanoid robot to have paid for a seat on a passenger plane.
‘Athena’ resembled much like a human in its design. It has a head, hands and legs, and was seen wearing stylish red sneakers during the time of boarding.
The robot is 6 feet 2 inches tall, and it weighs more than 100 pounds.
Sarcos, a Salt Lake City-based company has manufactured ‘Athena’, and it is being programmed from Schaal’s Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab at USC.
‘Athena’ is developed using the funds from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research program with a military backdrop.
The robot is being made as a disaster relief equipment and experts will be teaching ‘Athena’ to carry out dangerous operations which cannot be completed by humans.
From Germany, the robot will learn to walk and sit as per the instructions given. In all probabilities, this teaching curve will take more than one year to get completed.
‘Athena’ traveled in Economy class during the journey, but still V I P treatment was given to this special passenger. The robot was accompanied by two researchers Alexander Herzog and Jeannette Bohg of ‘Max-Planck Institute for Intelligence Systems’.