Getting on a plane should be the start of a relaxing trip to another location.
But nothing causes as much panic as seeing your luggage balanced precariously on towing vehicles from outside the plane window before departure.
Fortunately, these human-powered luggage pullers could soon be a thing of the past.
British Airways will start using a self-driving baggage robot, ‘Auto-DollyTug’, at Gatwick Airport later this year.
The machines collect suitcases from the terminal building and transport them in closed containers across the tarmac to waiting aircraft.
The self-driving vehicle, developed by Coventry-based company Aurrigo, will transport luggage from terminals to waiting aircraft, where they will be stored using human-operated lifts
Once they reach the aircraft, they are loaded into the cargo hold using human-operated elevators.
Auto-DollyTug is the creation of a company called Aurrigo, based in Coventry, which has a wide range of autonomous vehicles including buses and shuttles.
It hopes that Auto-DollyTug will be more efficient and faster than current procedures, while reducing the amount of lost luggage.
David Keene, CEO and co-founder of Aurrigo, said it’s often “lotto time” for passengers at an airport baggage carousel.
“First of all, you may have to wait a long time,” he told the newspaper Telegraph.
“Second, your bag may not have made it, and that negatively impacts the customer experience.
‘Everyone tends to blame the airline because that’s how you fly, but in many cases it’s not the airlines that handle the luggage.
“So taking that back and being able to own the customer experience is a really important part of that.”
Aurrigo has been testing a fleet of Auto-DollyTugs at Changi Airport in Singapore since the Covid pandemic.
The autonomous one transports luggage in closed containers – a bit like shipping containers – instead of just sitting on open trailers
Aurrigo has been testing a fleet of Auto-DollyTugs at Changi Airport in Singapore since the Covid pandemic
Luggage tow tractors are human-powered vehicles with open trailers full of suitcases. Pictured is a baggage puller at Venice Marco Polo Airport, Italy
They have also previously been trialled with Auto-DollyTug at Heathrow Airport, but will now enter full-time service on British Airways flights at Gatwick from May at the earliest.
At the same time, they will also come to Cincinnati Airport in Ohio.
To explore Gatwick, Aurrigo will use a 3D ‘digital twin’ of the airport built into the software.
This allows each robot – which ranges in cost from around £100,000 to £250,000 – to learn routes and navigate through potential hazards.
It also uses 360° cameras and LiDAR – a detection method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure the distances of objects.
And instead of taking over jobs previously owned by human workers, Aurrigo expects the Auto-DollyTugs will address the workforce shortages plaguing the aviation industry.
These shortages have led to flight delays, cancellations, long lines and rising ticket prices.
Aurrigo is also known for designing and building Britain’s first self-driving city center bus service, which will launch in Sunderland in the coming months.
Three of the zero-emission shuttle buses will transport passengers on a five-mile route between Sunderland’s bus hub, the university campus and the Royal Hospital.
Aurrigo has also designed and built Britain’s first self-driving city center bus service. The route will be the first driverless bus service to launch in a city center in Britain
Under the first pilot project, there will be two “safety personnel” on board to “oversee and manage” the operation of the self-driving vehicle.
This is standard procedure in self-driving tests, because people can intervene if something goes wrong.
The company also has another vehicle, the Auto-Pod, a four-seater battery-powered vehicle designed for transporting people in cities.
In Milton Keynes, MailOnline took a ride in the Auto-Pod, which is controlled by an Xbox controller but stops at bollards and cannot navigate around trucks.