Tiny Robot Learns to Fly a Real Plane

      A doll-sized robot has learned how to use a simulator to fly an aircraft designed for humans. The robot's name is Pibot which is a combination of robot and pilot. Pibot is 15.6in tall. Pibot has a video camera built into its "face", with software built in for runway detection and other visual cues. The rest of the buttons, sticks and switches allow the robot to control throttle, braking pitch, yaw, altitude, velocity, and direction, information is fed to the robot directly through wires.

   The Pibot hasn't flown a full-sized plane yet, but the team has plans to escalate the project to that stage. The robot already successfully flown computer simulations -- and a real-world, scaled-down model biplane.  For more information read here