GERMANY: A robot head which smiles at passengers and greets them with ‘My name is FRAnny. How can I help you?’ is being tested by Deutsche Bahn’s information technology arm DB Systel and airport operator Fraport. The initial trial is at Frankfurt airport, with trials at Berlin Hbf planned for June.
FRAnny is based on artificial intelligence with a cloud-based voice-user interface that can be deployed in a variety of forms including chatbots, voice assistants and robots. It can answer a range of routine questions about transport hubs, including wayfinding and how to use the free wi-fi, in German, English and seven other languages.
