'Port 5, steady on 330' — humanoid robot PIBOT takes the helm on a Navy warship

At the ship-handling training bridge of the Naval Education Command in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, the officer of the watch called out: "Port 5, steady on 330." A humanoid robot reached for the helm.

PIBOT repeated the order back verbatim, turned the wheel, and reported "Steady on 330" once the vessel's heading locked in. It was a scene as old as seafaring — only this time, a robot's hands were on the helm.

The South Korean Navy said Friday it had conducted its first "robot crew combat experiment" on Thursday in collaboration with KAIST, placing a robot rather than a human at the helmsman's station on a ship's bridge.

A combat experiment is a process in which the military repeatedly tests and refines new alternatives — covering technology, systems, doctrine and organization — through engineering trials.

The experiment was designed to explore how robots can be operated aboard warships as part of the Navy's "maritime manned-unmanned composite combat system," known as Navy Sea GHOST, which aims to build a smart, science-driven force.

Navy Sea GHOST envisions an integrated force in which crewed vessels and various unmanned systems work together. Robot crew members would serve as a central pillar in restructuring the personnel model aboard ships.

PIBOT was assigned as helmsman on the bridge that day. Until now, the commanding officer or a delegated officer of the watch has determined course and speed, while a helmsman and an engine telegraph operator have each handled the helm and engine controls to operate the vessel.

The Navy chose to verify whether a robot could carry out actual ship-handling procedures without error — tasks long considered the exclusive domain of human crew.

The key enabler is AI language comprehension. The Navy and the KAIST research team used a large language model to design PIBOT so it can interpret Korean ship-handling commands and carry out the full sequence: repeating orders back, executing the maneuver, and reporting completion.

The robot was trained on the command structure used aboard naval vessels, and its responses were aligned with standard Navy procedures.

The experiment was conducted as a first phase using a land-based ship-handling simulator. The Navy fed in a range of scenarios — narrow-channel navigation, severe weather and night sailing — to test PIBOT's ability to change and hold course, accumulating data on how accurately the robot responded to commands.

The combat experiment is set to expand through a moored-vessel phase (phase two), an actual daytime maritime navigation phase (phase three), and a day-and-night extended voyage phase (phase four), with safety and reliability to be improved at each stage.

Funding is backing the effort. PIBOT's development is part of the Agency for Defense Development's future-challenge defense technology research and development program; the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has committed about 5.7 billion won ($3.88 million) since 2022 for KAIST-led research.

The broader ambition is to deploy physical AI-based humanoid robots in combat environments — not merely as remote-controlled machines — simultaneously developing both the intelligence and the physical capability needed for manned-unmanned composite forces.

"Testing the possibility of a physical AI-based humanoid robot performing helmsman duties on a naval vessel is a meaningful step forward," said Shim Hyeon-cheol, a KAIST professor leading the project. "Our goal is to advance the technology to the point where a robot can genuinely handle actual ship-handling missions."

The Navy said it plans to expand the range of crew duties that robots can take over.

The experiment carries particular significance as an answer to the manpower shortage facing South Korea's military, offering a path to sustaining warship operations as the pool of available service members shrinks.

"This is the first step toward analyzing and evaluating whether a robot can perform ship-handling — a task that has long belonged exclusively to human crew — without error," said Kim Hyeong-jun, commander of the Navy's Force Analysis Test and Evaluation Group, which oversaw the experiment. "We will actively respond to the changing defense environment, including reducing the workload on crew members, the sharp decline in military manpower, and advances in cutting-edge technology."