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South Korea tests a robot sailor as recruits run short
South Korea's navy has tested KAIST's humanoid PIBOT as a robotic helmsman in a ship-handling simulator at Jinhae. Released footage shows the machine gripping controls and maintaining a commanded heading, demonstrating how a human-shaped robot might operate equipment designed for sailors without extensive ship modification. The experiment responds partly to recruiting pressure as the military has contracted by about 20% in six years to roughly 450,000 personnel. It remains a simulator demonstration, not operational deployment, and the navy has not announced procurement quantities, ship assignments, safety certification or a service-entry timetable.