This robot is roving around the Amsterdam airport to help lost passengers find their way

Meet Spencer, the newest employee at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, and the latest in a growing global group of robots being dispatched to deal with everyday airport passenger assistance.

A joint venture between Sweden's Örebro University, Dutch airline KLM, and researchers from five different nations funded by the European Commission, Spencer's mandate is to help passengers traverse the sprawling airport, helpfully offering up walking directions to passers-by. Spencer Project leader Achim Lilienthal tells Phys.org:

"Navigating an airport is challenging, there is a lot of glass and a constantly changing environment in terms of temporary obstructions, such as parked luggage trolleys and people everywhere...It is surprisingly difficult to fit all the pieces together. A small error somewhere along the line may take an unpredictably long time to discover and work out."

In fact, Spencer was "born" out of KLM's desire to recoup costs from passengers missing flights due to simply being lost in the airport. With that in mind, Spencer roves throughout Schiphol, offering up directions via its information screen. A pair of "eyes" perched above the screen "body" helps to humanize the bot, making it more approachable to humans in need of assistance.

Spencer may only be in the midst of a trial deployment, but its creators are hopeful that the A.I. powering the robot could have wider applications beyond airports. Lilienthal says that Spencer-like robots could help humans once reliant on assisted living facilities to stay in their own homes longer, or help the incoming wave of self-driving vehicles to better understand the world around them.

"This technology can be used in all robots intended to interact with humans. Autonomous trucks for example, would be more widely accepted if they functioned better in their interaction with humans."

Best of luck to Spencer at work this week. Let's hope it's a good one!