Meet 'Pibot,' the humanoid robot that can safely pilot an airplane better than a human

Both artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have made significant strides in recent years, meaning most human jobs could soon be overtaken by technology - on the ground and even in the skies above us.

A team of engineers and researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) is currently developing a humanoid robot that can fly aircraft without needing to modify the cockpit.

"Pibot is a humanoid robot that can fly an aeroplane just like a human pilot by manipulating all the single controls in the cockpit, which is designed for humans," David Shim, an associate professor of electrical engineering at KAIST, told Euronews Next.

The robot, dubbed "Pibot," can control its arms and fingers to dextrously operate the flight instruments, even with severe vibration in an aircraft, using high-precision control technology.

Its external cameras allow Pibot to monitor the current state of the aircraft and the internal ones help it manage essential switches on the control panel.

Pibot is able to memorise complex manuals presented in natural language, a feat that enhances its adaptability across various aircraft.

Its memory is so large that it can memorise all of the Jeppesen aeronautical navigation charts around the world, which is impossible for human pilots, according to the KAIST team.

"Humans can fly many aeroplanes, but they do have these habits built into them. So when they try to convert to different aeroplanes they have to take another qualification. Sometimes this is not that simple because our habit remains in our mind that we can’t simply change from one to the other," said Shim.

“With the pilot robot, if we teach individual aeroplane configuration, then you can fly the aeroplane by simply clicking the