Via peekay4: ...The future use for robots like ALIAS may or may not be in the cockpit at all, but perhaps in assistive fields (medicine, home/elderly care, construction) besides various military applications...
I guess they could have put the 'robot' in any sort of environment to test it though the quality of feedback they need to prove and improve the product would be lacking. Airline simulators are probably the most demanding human/machine workplace interface environments to be found, and they come with people who's job it is to identify and access a pilots skills ...or robot skills. For the cost of hiring an airline sim for a day or two it is probably far cheaper then setting up a dedicated test facility