acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM TechNews

Humanoid Robot Can Pilot an Airplane Better Than a Human


View as: Print Mobile App Share:
The Pibot robot at the controls of an aircraft.

The research team says Pibot “understands” and memorizes manuals originally written for humans thanks to recent advances in large language models.

Credit: Roselyne Min/EuroNews

Engineers and researchers at South Korea's Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology are developing a humanoid robot that can fly airplanes without requiring cockpit modifications.

The "Pibot" can operate the same flight instruments that humans use, even amid severe vibration through high-precision control technology.

The robot can monitor the current state of the aircraft using external cameras and manipulate switches on the control panel using its internal cameras.

Pibot also can memorize complex manuals in natural language, including all of the Jeppesen aeronautical navigation charts.

The researchers expect Pibot, when completed in 2026, to pilot airplanes without error and overtake humans' reaction time in emergency situations thanks to advances in large language models.

From EuroNews
View Full Article


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account