AI Top Gun: Meet PiBot, a humanoid that has pipped pilots on every count
Engineers and researchers are developing a humanoid robot pilot, called Pibot that can fly aeroplanes better than the best of humans. Not just that, the humanoid can also drive cars, operate tanks, and even command battleships and submarines
Looks like Captain Pete Mitchell aka Maverick has some tough competition. At the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), a team of engineers and researchers are busy crafting a humanoid robot that can actually fly planes without any need for altering the cockpit.
“Pibot,” the name of the flying pilot robot, can control its arms and fingers to nimbly manage all the flight controls in a cockpit, even when the aircraft is rattling with vibrations.
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With its external cameras, Pibot keeps an eye on the plane’s status, while its internal cameras help it handle crucial switches on the control panel.
What’s even more impressive is that Pibot can memorize complex manuals written in everyday language. This skill makes it super adaptable for various types of aircraft. Its memory is so massive that it can actually store all the aeronautical navigation charts from Jeppesen worldwide – something human pilots can’t pull off.
David Shim, the associate professor of electrical engineering at KAIST, explains it this way: “Humans can handle various planes, but they get used to certain habits tied to specific planes. So when they try to switch to a different aircraft, it requires more training. Changing habits is tough, as they stick with us. But with our pilot robot, once you teach it the specifics of a plane, you can just click on the plane’s type and it’s good to go.”
This robot’s memory game has been greatly boosted by big advances in large language models (LLM), like ChatGPT. These language models allow Pibot to understand and remember manuals that were initially written for humans.
Thanks to LLM, Pibot is anticipated to carry out error-free flights and respond quicker than human pilots during emergencies. It can store aircraft operation and emergency manuals and provide instant responses. Plus, it can calculate safe routes on the fly based on the aircraft’s status.
The KAIST team is also working on their own natural language model to complement ChatGPT. This specialized language model will be limited to piloting info and will be stored in a compact computer on board.
Pibot isn’t limited to just aircraft communication. It can link up directly with planes and even communicate with air traffic controllers and crew using voice synthesis, effectively acting as a pilot or co-pilot.
And don’t think Pibot’s skills are restricted to the aviation world. Standing at 160 cm tall and weighing 65 kg, its humanoid design makes it versatile enough to take over human roles in driving cars, operating tanks, and even commanding ships at sea.
Shim points out that while the human form isn’t necessarily the most efficient, Pibot was intentionally designed in this shape to make use of human-centric environments. According to Shim, “We could have given it eight arms and four eyes, but somehow the human form seems to work best.”
While Pibot is still under development, the goal is to have it finished by 2026. The project was backed by the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) in South Korea, which has potential military applications in mind for this technology, as Shim foresees.