Physical Intelligence Department started its research activities in fall 2014 at the Stuttgart site of our institute. Our department aims to understand the principles of design, fabrication, control, and learning of single and large numbers of small scale-mobile robots made of smart and soft materials as our physical intelligence platforms. The intelligence of such robots would dominantly come from their physical design, materials, interactions, and control more than, or in addition to, their computational perception, learning, and control. Such physical intelligence methods are indispensable at the small scale, especially since small-scale mobile robots are inherently limited in onboard computation, actuation, powering, perception, and control capabilities. Our department has three main research thrust fields to realize new physical intelligence platforms to understand them in detail: Advanced materials, mobile millirobots, and mobile microrobots.
To realize new physical intelligence platforms at the small scale for operation in complex and dynamic environments with their inherent limitations in all functionalities, novel smart, (multi)functional, highly integrated, safe, and advanced materials are indispensable for improved performance and adaptive... Read More
The department currently has two focuses in the field of mobile millirobots. The first one is on soft mobile millirobots which would have high impact in healthcare. This includes soft mobile millirobots and medical pill-size soft capsule robots. The second focus is on design and control of self-contained robots with capabilities of ... Read More
Mobile robotic devices smaller than one millimeter could enable new directions in healthcare, biotechnology and manufacturing. Our focus in healthcare is on medical microrobots that can leverage minimally invasive interventional and targeted delivery strategies with high precision and repeat... Read More