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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Soft Robotics
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1472051
This article is part of the Research Topic Creative Approaches to Appropriation and Design: Novel Robotic Systems for Heterogeneous Contexts View all 5 articles

Nature Redux: Interrogating Biomorphism and Soft Robot Aesthetics Through Generative AI

Provisionally accepted
Mads Bering Christiansen Mads Bering Christiansen Ahmad Rafsanjani Ahmad Rafsanjani Jonas Jørgensen Jonas Jørgensen *
  • SDU Soft Robotics, SDU Biorobotics, Mærk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly become a widespread design aid through the recent proliferation of generative AI tools. In this work we use generative AI to explore soft robotics designs, specifically Soft Biomorphism, an aesthetic design paradigm emphasizing the inherent biomorphic qualities of soft robots to leverage them as affordances for interactions with humans. The work comprises two experiments aimed at uncovering how generative AI can articulate and expand the design space of soft biomorphic robotics using text-to-image (TTI) and image-to-image (ITI) generation techniques. Through TTI generation, Experiment 1 uncovered alternative interpretations of soft biomorphism, emphasizing the novel incorporation of e.g., fur, which adds a new dimension to the material aesthetics of soft robotics. In Experiment 2, TTI and ITI generation were combined and a category of hybrid techno-organic robot designs discovered, which combined rigid and pliable materials. The work thus demonstrates in practice the specific ways in which AI image generation can contribute towards expanding the design space of soft robotics.

    Keywords: Generative Artificial Intelligence1, Soft Robotics2, Robot Design3, Design Aesthetics4, Biomorphism5

    Received: 09 Aug 2024; Accepted: 26 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Christiansen, Rafsanjani and Jørgensen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jonas Jørgensen, SDU Soft Robotics, SDU Biorobotics, Mærk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.