'Athena' The Robot Goes On Her First Flight

Meet "Athena." (And no. We're not talking about the Greek goddess of war, wisdom and crafts.) She's a U.S.-made humanoid robot, and she may be coming to an airport near you.

Just this Monday, Athena traveled as a paying passenger from the Los angeles aiport, spending most of her time an economy-class seat on a Flight to Frankfurt, Germany.

Her airport arrival caused a rather big scene among passengers preparing for their flight. In fact, LAX tweeted her progress through the airport, as well.

The humanoid was built by Salt Lake City engineering and robotics company Sarcos, and according to an airport spokeswoman, the robot was made especially for overseas voyages. However, scientists "wanted to see how humans responded to a robot sitting in a plane," according to Fox News.

We're more likely to see robots popping up in different areas of life with the future. In fact, robots may be coming to the workplace. But how might this make the average worker feel?

A previous study by researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) found that fortunately, humans don't seem to mind so much.

"In our research we were seeking to find that sweet spot for ensuring that the human workforce is both satisfied and productive," says project lead Matthew Gombolay, a PhD student at CSAIL. "We discovered that the answer is to actually give machines more autonomy, if it helps people to work together more fluently with robot teammates."

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