robot

ROBOT baggage handlers will replace humans during an experimental project as a major airline trials a humanoid crew.

The pilot programme was announced by Japan Airlines, where Chinese-made robots will be integrated into ground operations at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

The country’s biggest airport will host the three-year experiment, where the machines will be tasked with cleaning planes, as well as loading and transporting baggage.

Looking further into the future, the androids could also be operating ground support equipment including baggage tractors, catering trucks and power units.

The airline said bipedal robots were the best suited to working in airport environments, as opposed to other types of robotic machines.

This is because they are quicker and are able to move within and adapt to cramped spaces.

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“Being human-shaped allows their introduction without significant modifications to existing airport facilities or aircraft structures,” a Japan Airlines spokesperson said.

“By combining cutting-edge AI technology with the unique flexibility of humanoid forms, the project aims to realise a sustainable operational structure through labour savings and workload reduction.”

“Currently, the aviation industry faces a serious challenge in ground handling labour shortages,” they continued.

The airline said this was because of increased tourism and a declining working-age population in Japan.

“Ground handling operations require highly skilled personnel to maintain safety, such as aircraft marshalling and baggage/cargo handling, while also imposing significant physical burdens,” they said.

Baggage handlers do one of the least glamorous and thankless jobs in the modern world.

Many workers suffer with back injuries and are often faced with complaints about lost and damaged belongings.

The robots were trialled in Haneda this week, with a demonstration showing a skinny 51-inch robot tapping and pushing large storage containers on rollers.

To demonstrate that a task had been completed, the robots raise a hand.

The machine is made by Unitree Robotics of China and has 43 separate moving parts.

“While airports appear highly automated and standardised, their back-end operations still rely heavily on human labour and face serious labour shortages,” said Tomohiro Uchida of GMO AI & Robotics, the airline’s partner on the project.

A few days ago came the astonishing news that the world record in the half-marathon was obliterated by a 5-foot-5 humanoid robot named Lightning in Beijing.

Now a robot named Ace has achieved another milestone for AI and robotics by defeating expert-level humans at table tennis in Tokyo, according to a study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.

What’s next, a robotic baseball player named Babe that swats 500-foot home runs and throws 120 mph pitches, eclipsing Shohei Ohtani’s real-life achievements and commanding a billion dollar contract?

It’s all fun and games until it isn’t.

Extraordinary athletic achievements by AI robots might seem innocuous, especially compared to far more grave threats described by various experts, including the landmark publication “An Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks” by the Center for AI Safety in 2023.

To name a few: Misinformation and social media manipulation; job displacement and economic inequality; cybersecurity threats; lethal autonomous weapons; environmental impact; psychological dependence; and ultimately, the existential risk to humanity of losing control of rogue AI systems.

For now, let’s get back to ping-pong.

Ace was developed by good, old Sony, the 80-year-old makers of gaming consoles, televisions, smartphones, cameras and audio equipment that we enjoy every day.

Of course Sony has an AI research division, and while most consumers were still going ga-ga over PlayStation 5 Pro 2TB, it developed the first robot to attain expert-level performance in a competitive physical sport that requires rapid decisions and precision execution.

Ace integrates nine synchronized cameras and three vision systems to track the spinning plastic ping-pong ball. Its lightning-fast processing time would be the envy of even Lightning, the humanoid robot that broke the world record in the half-marathon by nearly seven minutes.

“Here we present Ace, to our knowledge the first real-world autonomous system competitive with elite human table tennis players,” the study said. “Ace addresses the challenges of physical real-time interaction through a new, high-speed perception system using event-based vision sensors and a new control system based on model-free reinforcement learning, as well as state-of-the-art high-speed robot hardware.”

Ace showed out in matches that followed International Table Tennis Federation rules and were officiated by licensed umpires. Most of the matches took place in 2025 — before table tennis tale “Marty Supreme” even hit theaters — although Ace defeated professional players as recently as March.

One such human is Mayuka Taira, who said in comments provided by Sony AI to Reuters that the robot’s strengths are what one might expect: unpredictability and an absence of emotion.

“Because you can’t read its reactions, it’s impossible to sense what kind of shots it dislikes or struggles with, and that makes it even more difficult to play against,” Taira said.

Initial real-world applications of Ace-like robots likely would be in manufacturing and service industries, although untapped potential lies across sports, entertainment and safety-critical environments, according to the study.

“These results highlight the potential of physical AI agents to perform complex, real-time interactive tasks, suggesting broader applications in domains requiring fast, precise human–robot interaction,” the study said.

Those domains certainly could include baseball diamonds, basketball courts and gridirons. Hockey rinks could be lumped in provided robots can skate.

AI already is used in MLB. The vaunted Automated Ball-Strike system (ABS) uses AI-powered Hawk-Eye camera technology and computer vision to determine if pitches are strikes or balls. Twelve high-speed cameras track ball flight and AI delivers the definitive call to the scoreboard within seconds of a challenge.

A robotic batter facing a robotic pitcher with calls made by ABS might eliminate any disagreements over balls and strikes.

Terrifying.

Reuters contributed to this story.

The humans were left far behind as smartphone maker Honor’s humanoid robot shattered the men’s world record in China.

A humanoid robot competing against flesh-and-blood runners has broken the world record at a Beijing half-marathon, showcasing the rapid technological advancements achieved by Chinese makers.

Spectators lined the roads in Yizhuang in the capital’s south on Sunday to watch the machines and their human rivals race, each group in a separate lane to avoid accidents or collisions.

Some of the robots were highly agile, moving like famous runners such as Usain Bolt, while others had more basic capabilities.

The winning humanoid, equipped with an autonomous navigation system and running for Chinese smartphone maker Honor, completed the roughly 21km (13-mile) course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, at an average speed of about 25km/h (15.5mph), according to state broadcaster CCTV.

That was far faster than the top human in Sunday’s race, while also surpassing the current men’s world record of 57:20, held by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo.

The result represented spectacular progress from last year, when robot-runners fell repeatedly, and the best took more than two hours and 40 minutes to finish.

The number of humanoid entries jumped from about 20 last year to more than 100, according to organisers, a sign of the sector’s growing popularity.

‘Pretty cool’

Han Chenyu, a 25-year-old student who watched the race from behind a safety barrier, barely had time to take out her phone and snap a picture of the leading robot as it whizzed past.

She told the AFP news agency she was enthusiastic about such leaps in technology and thought the event was “pretty cool”.

But, she added, “as someone who works for a living, I’m a little worried about it sometimes. I feel like technology is advancing so fast that it might start affecting people’s jobs”, particularly with artificial intelligence (AI) growing increasingly sophisticated.

Humanoid robots have become a common sight in China in recent years, in the media as well as in public spaces.

Xie Lei, 41, who watched Sunday’s race with his family, said robots could “become part of our daily lives” within several years, potentially used for “things like housework, elderly companionship or basic caregiving” or “dangerous jobs, even firefighting”.

The humanoid half-marathon aims to encourage innovation and popularise the technologies used in creating and operating such machines.

In a sign of the industry’s strength, investment in robotics and so-called embodied AI amounted to 73.5 billion yuan ($10.8bn) in China in 2025, according to a study by a government agency.

“For thousands of years, humans have been at the top on planet Earth. But now, look at robots. Just in terms of autonomous navigation, at least in this specific sport event, they’re already starting to surpass us,” Xie said.

“On one hand, it does make you feel a little bit sad for humanity. But at the same time, technology, especially in recent years, has given us so much imagination.”

One hotel is offering a unique experience when it comes to its check-in staff. Instead of humans, guests at the hotel are greeted by robot dinosaurs to help them check-in to their room

Most of us like to encounter unique experiences when we travel, and one hotel based in Japan is certainly offering that with its check-in staff. Instead of humans, guests at the hotel are greeted by robot dinosaurs to help them check-in to their room. The unique experience was shared over on Instagram, with influencer Anna-Lynne posting a reel about it. Her video saw her walk in to a ocean-themed room as robot dinosaurs greeted her at the check-in desk.

Overlay text read, ‘POV, it’s 8pm in Japan, you’re tired and you just want to check in to your hotel…’ Following up in the caption, she wrote: “Booked this stay not knowing I’d be checked in by dinosaurs and low-key, I was terrified.

It was 8pm, I was exhausted after a flight, and I had to walk from the train station in pitch dark just to get here. Then these prehistoric receptionists welcome me and I was like uhhh the f**k.

“But real talk they were somehow more polite than some humans I know. The check-in was smooth, and this place is super clean and quirky in the best way.”

The hotel in question is Henn na Resort & Spa Kansai Airport in Japan.

The unique, high-tech hotel in the Izumisano area is famous for being the world’s first hotel brand staffed primarily by robots, including dinosaur receptionists.

It is located along the coast with scenic views of Osaka Bay and airplanes landing at the nearby airport.

As well as guests being greeted and checked in by multilingual dinosaur robots in the ocean-themed lobby, they can also make use of many facilities such as indoor and open-air baths with bay views, a mineral mist sauna, and a dry sauna.

The on-site restaurant, Seian (Aoi-an), serves Japanese cuisine made with local ingredients and is supervised by a Michelin 1-star chef.

In addition to standard rooms, the hotel offers unique concept rooms like Ninja, Pirate, and Peach Aviation collaboration.

The hotel is approximately 15 minutes by car or one train stop (6 minutes) from Kansai International Airport (KIX). It is a 10-minute walk from Rinku Town Station.

Attractions nearby include Rinku Premium Outlets, Rinku Park, and the Seacle shopping mall, which are all within walking distance.

The hotel is often highly praised for its magnificent views, clean modern rooms, and the fun novelty of the robot staff. However, some guests found the walk from the station difficult with heavy luggage and noted that the automated check-in may occasionally require human assistance.

People were loving the look of the robot dinosaur staff from Anna-Lynne’s video, with it racking up more than 811,000 likes.

One person exclaimed: “Wait this is so epic.”

While another added: “My introverted self would prefer the awkward robot dinosaurs.”

However, many others predicted they’d encounter a few issues too.

“Lol, this would send me over the edge of laughter and despair,” one person wrote.

While another added: “Imagine trying to complain about room service and staying serious.”