About this Research Topic
Robots have demonstrated the ability to perform hugely complex tasks when situated in well-structured environments such as a factory floor. However, in more unstructured, complex and unknown environments the capabilities of robots are severely diminished. In contrast, biological organisms are able to thrive in a wide variety of complex and unstructured environments with apparent ease. This is, in part, thanks to their embodied intelligence: the intelligence that emerges from the coupling between the brain, body and environment. Embodied intelligence can equip agents with the physical resilience and low-level computational capabilities, amongst other advantages, required to function in the wider world. As awareness of the influence of embodied intelligence has grown, so have a number of biologically inspired paradigms for implementing these concepts in robotic platforms, for example, morphological computation and sensory-motor coordination. By understanding design principles in biological systems and identifying methods for the design and fabrication of similar techniques for artificial systems, we can forge a path for increasingly capable, resilient, and intelligent robots.
The goal of this Research Topic is to further our understanding of biological mechanisms, materials and intelligence, and also bio-inspired technologies and approaches for robots and embodied systems. In addition, application and demonstration of embodied intelligence for solving otherwise complex tasks. In summary:
● Through the study of nature and biology, identify mechanisms of embodied intelligence
● Identify new design and manufacturing methods and approaches for implementing embodied intelligence in robotic hardware
● Demonstrate and exploit the design of the ‘body’ to simplify control, sensing and learning tasks
● Demonstrate and utilize the role of embodied intelligence in adaption, growth, evolutionary development and cognitive development for robotic systems
● Identify design methodologies and rules for systems with embodied intelligence
Specific themes and Research Topic of interest include, but are not limited to:
● Self-organization and Bio-Inspired Robotics
● Bio-hybrid robotic systems
● Cyborg systems
● Morphological computation and embodied intelligence in soft robots
● Cognitive Developmental Robotics
● Evolutionary robotics
● Brain and body co-development
● Smart materials
● Bio-inspired computational methodologies
● Emergent behaviors of embodied systems
Keywords: Bio-inspired Robotics, Embodied Intelligence, Morphological Computation, Sensory-Motor Coordination, Soft Robotics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
