Soon, 'RADA' to aid Vistara fliers in Delhi airport

Soon RADA, a robot using Artificial Intelligence (AI), will greet Vistara fliers at the Delhi airport where it will "assist customers, address their queries and entertain them".

Initially, the robot will be placed at Vistara's signature lounge at the Indira Gandhi International Airport's Terminal-III from July 5.

The robot is built on a chassis of four wheels, enabling it to rotate 360 degrees, and it has three in-built cameras for cognitive interaction and an effective voice technology.

According to Vistara, the robot is aimed at helping the airline offer a seamless experience and an "intuitively thoughtful" on-ground service to its customers, keeping with the changing consumer behaviour.

The robot will scan boarding passes and further provide information on the terminal, departure gates, weather conditions of the destination city, real-time flight status as well as information about Vistara’s products and services.

"It greets customers and interacts with them using basic hand movements, and is capable of moving around in the lounge on predefined pathways. Additionally, it can engage with kids and adults alike by playing games and other multimedia content such as songs and videos," the airline said.

Vistara Chief Executive Officer Leslie Thng said, "With RADA, we aim to change the way people interact and fly with an airline. We will be developing RADA based on customer feedback and equipping it with the most effective features in the time to come. Our steadfast focus remains to be on delighting customers across all touchpoints, and we are confident that RADA will help us take the 'new feeling' to the next level."

The airline claimed it is one of India's most economical robots completely made of indigenous components, thus making a compelling Make in India story. It was conceived, designed and engineered by Vistara's team of technology experts and apprentices from Tata Innovation Lab with support from students of reputed institutions.

Vistara's Chief Information and Innovation Officer Ravinder Pal Singh said, "The basic premise of the thought was to develop a simple and extremely cost-effective practical robot that can engage in basic human interaction to begin with, and can further be developed to perform more complex tasks, as consumer habits continue to evolve in the technological age where humans and machines will complement and create an evolved harmonious evolution."