Embodied Intelligence for Advanced Bioinspired Microrobotics: Examples and Insights

Abstract

The term embodied intelligence (EI) conveys the notion that body morphology, material properties, interaction with the environment, and control strategies can be purposefully integrated into the process of robotic design to generate intelligent behavior; in particular, locomotion and navigation. In this paper, we discuss EI as a design principle for advanced microrobotics, with a particular focus on co-design -- the simultaneous and interdependent development of physical structure and behavioral function. To illustrate the contrast between EI-inspired systems and traditional architectures that decouple sensing, computation, and actuation, we present and discuss a collection of robots developed by the author and his team at the Autonomous Microrobotic Systems Laboratory (AMSL). These robots exhibit intelligent behavior that emerges from their structural dynamics and the physical interaction between their components and with the environment. Platforms such as the Bee++, RoBeetle, SMALLBug, SMARTI, WaterStrider, VLEIBot+, and FRISSHBot exemplify how feedback loops, decision logics, sensing mechanisms, and smart actuation strategies can be embedded into the physical properties of the robotic system itself. Along these lines, we contend that co-design is not only a method for empirical optimization under constraints, but also an enabler of EI, offering a scalable and robust alternative to classical control for robotics at the mm-to-cm-scale.