The study, called Pibot, was created by scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He can pilot a jet plane.

What is known about the Pibot

• The bug-eyed robot, which is a little over one and a half meters tall, can control the steering wheel and maintain altitude even in the most difficult conditions.
• External cameras allow the robot to monitor a range of vital signs on board.
• Instead of translating a printed manual, the Pibot remembers documents using large language models and can instantly access the information it needs. This allows you to respond to emergencies faster than a human pilot.

This approach differs significantly from the traditional development aspects of unmanned aerial vehicles. Instead of creating a remote-controlled drone, the researchers worked with existing controls and augmented them with new ones.

A Pibot is a humanoid robot that can fly an airplane in the same way as a human pilot, by manipulating all the individual controls in the human cockpit.
– said David Shim, associate professor of KAIST’s Department of Electrical Engineering.

He adds that people can fly many planes, but they get used to their models and they have to acquire another qualification when they want to switch to another model. Instead, the Pibot can adapt to new conditions in the cockpit at the push of a button. “We teach the robot pilot a custom aircraft configuration so you can fly the plane by simply clicking on the type”– explained Shim.

Researchers have worked with AI chatbots like ChatGPT to train their robots to understand pilots’ instructions. But now they they are trying to develop their own LLM program especially for Pibot.

As for where it can be used, the team anticipates it will be deployed. in extreme conditions unsuitable for humans. In the end, at a sufficient level of technology development and in the absence of errors, such robots can completely replace pilots on airplanes.

Full deployment will be possible not before 2026. The South Korean defense ministry team has so far only run simulations, but is in talks with Airbus to use the Pibot for test flights with the newly developed electric aircraft.