Glasgow Airport revealed its newest airport worker this week: GLAdys, Britain’s first “humanoid robot airport ambassador” who will be entertaining passengers in the main departures area this month.

Named after Glasgow Airport’s International Air Transport Association (IATA) code 'GLA', the 4ft-tall “state-of-the-art” robot has been equipped with three main entertainment functions.

Dressed in a Santa Claus outfit, GLAdys is able to “sing and dance”, waving its head, arms and upper body about, to three classic Christmas songs including Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rocking around the Christmas Tree and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Passengers at Glasgow Airport Credit: Danny Lawson

She can also entertain visitors with three festival tales (Twas the Night before Christmas, When Santa Claus Comes, and Santa’s Workshop), as well as take selfies with passengers using a hand-mounted camera. Travellers can then receive the picture by email or have it shared on the airport’s social media channels.

GLAdys was introduced as part of the airport’s Digital Passenger Experience Project, which explores how customer engagement and communication can be enhanced through the use of technology.

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“We are always looking for new and innovative ways in which we can further enhance customer experience at Glasgow and believe the introduction of GLAdys to be a first for a UK airport, “ Mark Johnston, operations director at Glasgow Airport, said.

“Last year we launched our virtual assistant, affectionately dubbed ‘Holly the Hologram’, at various points across the airport and she has since proved extremely popular with our passengers.

Spencer, a robot to help navigate passengers around busy terminals, was introduced at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport last year Credit: KLM

“GLAdys will be a fantastic addition to the terminal team and will prove to be an extremely popular feature with passengers commuting through the airport,” he added.

Glasgow Airport isn’t the first airport to add a robot worker to its staff. Last year, passengers at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport were greeted by Spencer - a robot to help them navigate around the busy international terminals.

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The robot, which is taller than a human and has a face set atop a rectangular body with an interactive screen, is equipped with two front- and two rear-facing visual and depth sensors, two 2D laser scanners, a stereo camera pair (which look like eyes) and five onboard computers to help navigate its surroundings.

Schiphol, one of the most technologically advanced airports in the world, also has a large baggage handling robot arm in its central storage facility which automatically places bags into a container to be boarded on a plane. These robotic baggage handlers have been installed at the airport since 2009, while a Mechanical Unloading Module (MUM) was launched in 2014, allowing suitcases to be unloaded automatically from containers for the first time ever.

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Back in 2011, ‘holographic staff’, created using images and recordings of actual airport employees, were introduced at Manchester and London Luton airports in a bid to reduce security bag check queues.

Last year, Pepper - one of the world's first robots to understand human emotion - was signed up by a cruise line to help customers on board a cruise ship, while Japan launched the world's first hotel staffed by humanoid robots.