Lessons from Animals and Plants: The Symbiosis of Morphological Computation and Soft Robotics

Morphological computation is a modern perspective on intelligence that gives the physical body a stronger role. With respect to the traditional view, in which behavior is the result of perception, processing, and movement, with morphological computation, behavior emerges from the complex interaction of the physical body with the environment and depends heavily on the mechanical properties, the shape (or the morphology), and the arrangement of perceptual, motor, and processing units. In this view, the material properties of the structures are extremely important for control. In fact, most living organisms have soft bodies. As summarized, even animals with skeletons have soft tissues; in humans, for example, the skeleton typically contributes only 11% of the body mass of an adult male. Soft bodies thus appear to be fundamental to the emergence of behavior from the interaction with the environment. In other words, morphological computation benefits from soft bodies that react and adapt to such an interaction.