Adaptive Intelligence in Adaptive Bodies: AI for General Shape-Changing Robots

Abstract

Over millions of years, animals evolved to become efficient and powerful in earth's diverse environments. Man-made, synthetic systems now have the potential to achieve the same performance across terrains by adapting their morphology on immediate timescales. These general shape-changing robots (GSCRs) that can morph autonomously between arbitrary shapes as needed with onboard proprioception and control will take breakthroughs not just on the hardware side, but the controls side as well. To take this leap, we need to answer key questions about autonomous control, policy generality, pseudo-general actuation, and state feedback. Investigating these questions will bring us into the next age of shape-changing robots, but to answer them and execute this vision, we need to investigate the roll of artificial intelligence in creating general shape-changing robots. In this workshop, we bring together experts in AI and shape-changing robotics to define and crispen the roll of AI in the vision of GSCRs. This workshop has diverse speakers from in and outside of our community that are passionate about this challenge, and have agreed to speak on our list of key questions. We also present creative ways to foster collaboration across disciplines, engage students and amplify their voices, and encourage broad audience interaction—most excitingly through our collaboration “speed dating” activity, and “Moonshot” talks by professors and students. By the end of the workshop, we will have laid out a roadmap towards GSCRs, and catalyzed a broader research community around robots that adapt in real- time both in mind and body.