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Who doesn’t want a helping hand at the airport in the midst of all that bustling humanity?

Say hello to RADA, the robot from Vistara. RADA helps Vistara passengers in many ways — from scanning the boarding pass to answering queries about the destination city. RADA has been on the job from July 5 this year at Vistara’s Signature Lounge at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3. Right now, the robot is available only in Delhi.

Twenty days on, what does it feel like for a human to interface with a friendly machine?

A passenger who interacted with RADA describes the experience as “pretty good, and above par.” He says he found RADA colloquial, friendly and accurate with information. When he wanted to know what the weather was like in Chennai (his destination city), RADA promptly said it would be in the region of 31 degrees Celsius on the day of his arrival.

Two young children interacting with RADA in the Lounge say it is friendly and cute. It talks nice, they say. They know what they want from RADA — entertainment on the lines of YouTube and Instagram. Magazines? They are for Mum, says the older one decisively. RADA hits it off with children, going by the smiles on the faces of these two young passengers.

‘Make in India’ story

Will one need to approach RADA or will it make the moves? Vistara says RADA uses line following (guided navigation) to move around the lounge on a predefined pathway. Three embedded cameras help it to sense obstacles and stop, to detect customers and greet them. RADA also interacts with them, using basic hand movements.

In the present state of experimentation, RADA can 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.

Interestingly, RADA is as Indian as it can get. “RADA translates into a powerful ‘Make in India’ story. It has been conceptualised and developed from scratch using equipment/hardware – all made in India. In fact, most of the equipment and materials used to make it have been sourced from local shops in Delhi that sell computer hardware or software. “There are things we bought from places like Nehru Place and Gaffar Market. It is built on a chassis of four wheels that can easily be found in many toys in almost every home,” says Ravinder Pal Singh, Chief Information Officer, Vistara.

The basic premise was to come up with a simple, cost-effective robot that can engage in basic human interaction and can further be developed to perform more complex tasks, says Singh, adding RADA can “easily be called one of India’s most economical robots ever created.”

English, please

At present, RADA speaks and understands only English. It is capable of engaging with children and adults, playing almost all kinds of content, and can be integrated with most entertainment platforms available today.

According to Vistara, at the present stage of experimentation, RADA is equipped with limited content to observe human behaviour and assess customer feedback over a period of time. Vistara will strengthen the content library as RADA is developed further. Right now, it features online games, nursery rhymes, informative and inspirational YouTube videos, and music of genres such as Rock, Pop, Jazz, Hip Hop, etc.

The idea was to create something to enhance the customer experience, empower Vistara’s ground staff to use their time productively in engaging with customers. Offering the finest flying experience requires giving personalised, intuitively thoughtful service to customers. RADA is a by-product of this effort, says Vistara.

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