Embodied intelligence

Abstract

Embodied intelligence is the computational approach to the design and understanding of intelligent behavior in embodied and situated agents through the consideration of the strict coupling between the agent and its environment (situatedness), mediated by the constraints of the agent’s own body, perceptual and motor system, and brain (embodiment). The emergence of the field of embodied intelligence is closely linked to parallel developments in computational intelligence and robotics, where the focus is on morphological computation and sensory-motor coordination in evolutionary robotics models, and in neuroscience and cognitive sciences where the focus is on embodied cognition and developmental robotics models of embodied symbol learning. This chapter provides a theoretical and technical overview of some principles of embodied intelligence, namely morphological computation, sensory-motor coordination, and developmental embodied cognition. It will also discuss some tutorial examples on the modeling of body/brain/environment adaptation for the evolution of morphological computational agents, evolutionary robotics model of navigation and object discrimination, and developmental robotics.