Guide robots for airports, museums and campuses

A guide robot answers "where is" questions, leads a visitor to a place or gives a tour, and many do this in several languages. Most venues that have one today are testing one or two robots. Public prices start at $3,999 to buy a temi, the LG CLOi GuideBot was last listed at $39,990, and Starlife Bella costs $10 to $20 an hour.

What a guide robot does

The most common job is the information desk question. A traveller asks for gate 24, the baggage belt or a coffee shop, and the robot answers by voice or shows a map on its screen. Some robots also drive ahead of the visitor to the place, which helps in a building where signs are hard to follow.

In a museum the job is closer to a docent's, because the robot stops at an exhibit and explains it. Language is the other reason venues test these robots, since few information desks can staff fifty languages.

Where guide robots are in use today

Airports

San José Mineta International Airport put a humanoid robot named José, made by IntBot, in Terminal B near Gate 24 on March 24, 2026. The airport's news release describes a four-month pilot in which José greets travellers and answers questions in more than 50 languages. The airport's page for José still describes the robot at its info desk, but it does not say whether the pilot was extended.

Halifax Stanfield in Canada began a test of two robots built by the local company Maritime Robotics in 2025. According to Future Travel Experience, they stand before security, give flight and weather information and lead people to places inside a set area. The test was planned for several months, and we found no published result.

Incheon Airport in South Korea has the longest record. It put its AirStar guide robot into service in 2018, and in May 2026 it started 31 new robots, which include guide robots that escort passengers and docent robots that explain exhibits, as The Asia Business Daily reported.

Museums

Palazzo Madama in Turin has tested a wheeled robot guide called R1 since late March 2026. Euronews reported that early feedback was more than 80% positive, and also that some visitors still prefer a human guide for detailed explanations.

Museums also use robots in the other direction, to bring in people who cannot travel. At the California State Railroad Museum, a remote visitor drives a telerobot from UC Davis Health through the building and talks with the people there. UC Davis Health described the program in May 2024 as a pilot, so ask the museum whether it still runs.

Campuses

We did not find a university that reports a guide robot on its daily admissions tours today. The nearest example is old: in 2015 Oral Roberts University let prospective students drive two Double telepresence robots around campus from home, as Campus Technology reported.

The kinds on sale

There are three kinds, and they differ in who does the talking. An autonomous guide robot runs on software that maps the building, answers set questions and drives the robot. A telepresence robot is a video call on wheels, so the person on the screen is your own guide or the remote visitor. The third kind is a robot with a person behind it, where the maker supplies a trained person who talks and drives through the robot.

How much does a guide robot cost?

If you buy, the public prices are $3,999 for a temi and $4,499 for a Double 3. The US reseller RobotLAB listed the larger LG CLOi GuideBot at $39,990, but it now says the product is no longer available. OrionStar sells by quote.

The purchase price is only part of the cost, because with a robot you own, your team sets it up, keeps its answers current and looks after the hardware. With a telepresence robot you also pay for the staff member who drives it. Bella is priced by the hour at $10 to $20, which includes the robot pilot, the driving and the maintenance.

Prices checked in November 2026. They change often; check the linked pages.

What a venue should ask

Start with crowds. Ask how the robot behaves in one, and ask to see it work during your peak hour. Ask about floors and lifts as well, and how far the robot will go, because the Halifax robots lead people only inside a set area and show a map for anything further.

Check the network before you sign. Ask whether the robot needs your Wi-Fi, and test the signal in every place it will work.

For languages, ask which ones the robot speaks well enough for your visitors, and test it with a native speaker. Accessibility needs its own test, so find out how a visitor in a wheelchair reaches the screen.

Then ask about the questions nobody planned for. A lost child, a missed flight or a visitor who is upset will not match a set answer, so ask what the robot does then and how fast a person takes over.

Where Starlife Bella stands

Starlife has not run Bella in an airport, a museum or on a campus yet, and we are looking for a first pilot site in each. Bella works today in malls and healthcare settings. In a 14-day pilot at American Dream mall it had 2,222 guest engagements and led 638 guests to one tenant, as the case study shows.

Starlife Bella is a humanoid service robot with a friendly face and a chest display, on a wheeled base. It is not autonomous, because a trained robot pilot, supplied by Starlife, controls it live from a laptop with AI assistance.

In an airport, a museum or on a campus, Bella would do what it does in a mall: greet visitors, answer their questions, give directions and lead them to a place, in more than 30 languages with live translation both ways. A person is answering, so an unusual question still gets a proper answer. Bella has built-in 5G, so it does not use your Wi-Fi, and it works indoors only.

A software guide robot is the better choice if your visitors ask the same twenty questions and you want to own the hardware. If your own guides should appear on the screen, or you want to bring remote visitors in, choose a telepresence robot.

If you would like to be the first airport, museum or campus to try Bella, the normal start is a 14-day pilot. Book a demo.