Autonomous Physical Intelligence

Physical intelligence emerges when materials, structures, and robotic bodies contribute directly to sensing, adaptation, computation, and action.

Recent advances in soft robotics, mechanical metamaterials, programmable matter, embodied intelligence, and autonomous fabrication are increasingly shifting functionality from centralized control toward the physical design of machines. However, these communities often remain separated by disciplinary boundaries. This workshop aims to establish a shared framework for Autonomous Physical Intelligence, connecting researchers who engineer intelligence across scales, from responsive materials and adaptive structures to autonomous robots and collective systems.

By bringing together experts in mechanics, materials, robotics, fabrication, and control, the workshop will showcase recent developments, identify fundamental research challenges, and foster collaborations toward machines whose autonomy emerges from the interaction between their bodies, environments, and control systems.

• 1

  Create a multidisciplinary community of researchers working on autonomous physical intelligence across materials, mechanics, robotics, and fabrication.

• 2

  Develop a common language and conceptual framework for understanding how physical embodiment contributes to sensing, computation, adaptation, and autonomous behavior.

• 3

  Identify fundamental scientific and technological challenges involved in scaling physical intelligence from materials and structures to machines and collective systems.

• 4

  Foster new collaborations and research directions toward autonomous machines whose capabilities emerge through the integration of body, environment, and control.