A new video shows an autonomous 'robot pilot' successfully flying and landing a Boeing 737 in a simulator.

The creepy robotic arm shifts around the cockpit as it rhythmically changes the air speed, adjusts the wing flaps and fires up the thrusters in preparation for landing.

The project has been masterminded by the US Department of Defence's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

The successful test takes the technology one step closer to transforming military planes and helicopters into autonomous flying machines.

ROBOT PILOTS: ALIAS Sophisticated computers flying planes aren't new. But the Alias robot goes a step further. For example, an array of cameras allows the robot to see all the cockpit instruments and read the gauges. It can recognise whether switches are in the on or off position and flip them. It learns from its experience flying the plane as well as from the entire flight history of the plane type. Advertisement

Named Alias (Aircrew Labour In-Cockpit Automation System), the versatile robot pilot has previously flown a Cessna aircraft and even a helicopter.

The robot sits in the copilot seat and uses a system of cameras and sensors to monitor the plane's mosaic of dials, gauges and switches.

It feeds this information into a processor which calculates what the system's next move should be.

The arm can move switches and control the throttle while the system also has actuators that shift the craft's rudder and control column.

Alias was tested in a Boeing 737-800NG simulator at the U.S. Department of Transportation's John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Centre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The automated pilot successfully flew the machine during the simulated run and activated its automated landing system to set it down safely.

Alias was designed to act as co-pilot to a human captain in a two-person flight crew, and is there to help if a pilot is incapacitated or needs to step away from the cockpit.



The 'Alias' robotic arm shifts around the cockpit as it rhythmically changes the air speed, adjusts the wing flaps and fires up the thrusters in preparation for landing. In this image it is shown adjusting 737 the simulator's thrusters

In December the Pentagon's research agency announced that the technology had completed 'Phase 2' of its development.

During testing, the kit was successful in ground and flight demonstrations of different aircraft and showed it is capable of quickly tailoring to new platforms.

'In Phase 2, we exceeded our original program objectives with two performers, Sikorsky and Aurora Flight Sciences, each of which conducted flight tests on two different aircraft,' Scott Wierzbanowski, DARPA program manager, said at the time.

This image shows the robotic arm lowering the aircraft's speed. The arm can move switches and control the throttle while the system also has actuators that shift the craft's rudder and control column

Alias was designed to act as co-pilot to a human captain in a two-person flight crew, there to help if the pilot is incapacitated or needs to step away from the cockpit

CHALLENGES FACING ALIAS The robot faces a lot of hurdles before it's ready to start replacing human pilots, not the least of which is that it would require a massive rewrite of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety regulations. Even small changes to FAA regulations often take years to make. Elements of the ALIAS technology could be adopted within the next five years, officials said, much the way automakers are gradually adding automated safety features that are the building blocks of self-driving technology to cars today. Pilot unions, however, are skeptical that robots can replace humans in the cockpit. Advertisement

'We're particularly interested in exploring intuitive human-machine interface approaches—including using handheld devices—that would allow users to interact with and control the Alias system more easily.

'Ultimately, we want to design for and demonstrate the improved Alias system across as many as seven previously untested fixed- and rotary-wing platforms.'

The program leaders placed the kit inside two different Cessna 208 Caravan fixed-wing craft, a Diamond DA-42 fixed-wing aircraft and a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter – all of which demonstrated successful flights with the technology.

Another milestone was its success while performing ground demonstrations.

Alias responded to various simulated flight contingency events, such as system failures, that might cause pilots to deviate from pre-set plans or standard courses of action.

The agency also proved their technology is capable of quickly tailoring to new platforms, and showing that installation and removal of the kit did not impact airworthiness.

The Boeing 737 (file photo) is one of the world's largest commercial airliners. Larger models can carry up to 215 passengers

Called Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (Alias), the Pentagon's researcher agency announced the technology has completed Phase 2 of development in December

Sikorsky's Phase 2 demonstration system fitted under the cabin floor and within the airframe of both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

With both the military and airlines struggling with shortages of trained pilots, defence officials say they see an advantage to reducing the number of pilots required to fly large planes or helicopters while at the same time making operations safer.

The idea is to have the robot augment the human pilot by taking over a lot of the workload, freeing the human pilot - especially in emergencies and demanding situations - to think strategically.

'It's really about a spectrum of increasing autonomy and how humans and robots work together so that each can be doing the thing that it's best at,' said John Langford, Aurora's chairman and CEO.

The Pentagon's research agency placed the kit inside of two different Cessna 208 Caravan fixed-wing air (back)and a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter(front) – all of which demonstrated successful flights with the technology

A Diamond DA-42 fixed-wing (pictured) was also fitted with Alias, which allowed leaders to see how quickly it can tailor to different platforms

In today's airliners, the autopilot is on nearly the entire time the plane is in the air.

Airline pilots do most of their flying for brief minutes during take-offs and landings, and even those critical phases of flight could be handled by the autopilot.

But the Alias robot goes a step further.

It learns from its experience flying the plane as well as from the entire flight history of that plane type.

The robot pilot learns not only from its experience flying the plane, but also from the entire history of flight in that type of plane