Soft robotics: Challenges and perspectives

There has been an increasing interest in the use of unconventional materials and morphologies in robotic systems because the underlying mechanical properties (such as body shapes, elasticity, viscosity, softness, density and stickiness) are crucial research topics for our in-depth understanding of embodied intelligence. The detailed investigations of physical system-environment interactions are particularly important for systematic development of technologies and theories of emergent adaptive behaviors. Based on the presentations and discussion in the Future Emerging Technology (fet11) conference, this article introduces the recent technological development in the field of soft robotics, and speculates about the implications and challenges in the robotics and embodied intelligence research. © Selection and peer-review under responsibility of FET11 conference organizers and published by Elsevier B.V.

The challenges ahead for bio-inspired 'soft' robotics

THERE ARE MANY different kinds of robots: factory automation systems that weld and assemble car engines; machines that place chocolates into boxes; medical devices that support surgeons in operations requiring high-precision manipulation; cars that drive automatically over long distances; vehicles for planetary exploration; mechanisms for powerline or oil platform inspection; toys and educational toolkits for schools and universities; service robots that deliver meals, clean floors, or mow lawns; and "companion robots" that are real partners for humans and share our daily lives. In a sense, all these robots are inspired by biological systems; it's just a matter of degree. A driverless vehicle imitates animals moving autonomously in the world.© 2012 ACM.

AI in locomotion: Challenges and perspectives of underactuated robots

This article discusses the issues of adaptive autonomous navigation as a challenge of artificial intelligence. We argue that, in order to enhance the dexterity and adaptivity in robot navigation, we need to take into account the decentralized mechanisms which exploit physical system-environment interactions. In this paper, by introducing a few underactuated locomotion systems, we explain (1) how mechanical body structures are related to motor control in locomotion behavior, (2) how a simple computational control process can generate complex locomotion behavior, and (3) how a motor control architecture can exploit the body dynamics through a learning process. Based on the case studies, we discuss the challenges and perspectives toward a new framework of adaptive robot control. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.

Embodied artificial intelligence: Trends and challenges

The field of Artificial Intelligence, which started roughly half a century ago, has a turbulent history. In the 1980s there has been a major paradigm shift towards embodiment. While embodied artificial intelligence is still highly diverse, changing, and far from "theoretically stable", a certain consensus about the important issues and methods has been achieved or is rapidly emerging. In this non-technical paper we briefly characterize the field, summarize its achievements, and identify important issues for future research. One of the fundamental unresolved problems has been and still is how thinking emerges from an embodied system. Provocatively speaking, the central issue could be captured by the question "How does walking relate to thinking?" © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.