When AI is typically discussed, it usually centers around computation in a classical sense - processors, control algorithms, and data-driven decision-making. However, in soft robotics, intelligence is distributed across the entire system, where morphology, material properties, and environmental interactions play fundamental roles. Rather than considering only computation as the brain of the robot, embodied intelligence considers a distribution of computation across the entire system, where morphology, material properties, and environmental interactions play fundamental roles.

This Research Topic looks to explore how nature-inspired designs leverage body and environment interactions to achieve efficient locomotion, whether by crawling, undulating, inching, rolling, or employing novel forms of movement. By merging insights from materials science, biomechanics, AI, and mechanical engineering, this Research Topic aims to push forward the notion that intelligence is not confined to only control algorithms, but emerges from the synergy between body, control, and environment.

Soft Robotics has introduced the notion that avoiding contact with the environment does not always have to be to the detriment of the system, and in some cases can be leveraged to expand the operational space of the robot itself. Within nature, nearly all animals exhibit some form of compliance when locomoting, either physically or through active adaptation to different scenarios. However, we have not seen a great breadth of locomoting soft robotics that operate effectively across numerous terrains and in confined spaces, environments where they should thrive.

In this Research Topic, the goal is to explore designs for bio-inspired robotic systems that exemplify embodied intelligence through or during locomotion. Contributors are encouraged to explore how nature-inspired designs leverage body-environment interactions to achieve efficient locomotion, using whichever modality they deem most effective.

Through this collection, we hope to broaden the conversation on how diverse morphological structures can lead to emergent intelligent behaviors.

This Research Topic is linked to the The Embodied Intelligence Challenge at the 2025 Edition of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). Any contributions previously published as conference proceedings must be extended to include 30% original content in order to be considered.

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Mindless-Wandering: Embodied Intelligence for Robotic Locomotion