Yesterday, a single-engine airplane took off in Virginia, which would be completely ordinary were it not for the fact that it was being flown by a robot. The robot was able to pilot the plane by virtue of commands being communicated to it via iPod by a human copilot; as the AP reports, robots could eventually replace humans as the second pilot on commercial flights. On the one hand, the robots wouldn’t get tired, bored or distracted. On the other hand, as pilot unions and objective experts point out, there are several abnormal situations where having a second human pilot has proven critical to keeping planes out of harm’s way. “Pilots are going to make mistakes, but a skilled human in that context, their expertise is quite amazing,“ says University of Utah professor David Strayer. “It’s a high bar for the robot to meet.“

That pilot in the cockpit may someday be a robot: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/9f8b7a3237f64bbda73c2f470394b55a/pilot-cockpit-may-someday-be-robot
Photo: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/9f8b7a3237f64bbda73c2f470394b55a/pilot-cockpit-may-someday-be-robot

Filed under: Airplane, Pilot, Robot