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Humans and animals excel in combining information from multiple sensory modalities, controlling their complex bodies, adapting to growth, failures, or using tools. These capabilities are also highly desirable in robots. They are displayed…

We study the formation control problem for a group of mobile agents in a plane, in which each agent is modeled as a kinematic point and can only use the local measurements in its local frame. The agents are required to maintain a geometric…

Robots are traditionally bounded by a fixed embodiment during their operational lifetime, which limits their ability to adapt to their surroundings. Co-optimizing control and morphology of a robot, however, is often inefficient due to the…

The study of active matter has revealed novel non-equilibrium collective behaviors, illustrating their potential as a new materials platform. However, most works treat active matter as unregulated systems with uniform microscopic energy…

Living microorganisms have evolved dedicated sensory machinery to detect environmental perturbations, processing these signals through biochemical networks to guide behavior. Replicating such capabilities in synthetic active matter remains…

We show that neural networks trained by evolutionary reinforcement learning can enact efficient molecular self-assembly protocols. Presented with molecular simulation trajectories, networks learn to change temperature and chemical potential…

Urban growth sometimes leads to rigid infrastructure that struggles to adapt to changing demand. This paper introduces a novel approach, aiming to enable cities to evolve and respond more effectively to such dynamic demand. It identifies…

Microorganisms can create engineered materials with exquisite structures and living functionalities. Although synthetic biology tools to genetically manipulate microorganisms continue to expand, the bottom-up rational design of engineered…

Our ability to produce human-scale bio-manufactured organs is critically limited by the need for vascularization and perfusion. For tissues of variable size and shape, including arbitrarily complex geometries, designing and printing…

The study of organoids, artificially grown cell aggregates with the functionality and small-scale anatomy of real organs, is one of the most active areas of research in biology and biophysics, yet the basic physical origins of their…

Branched structures that evolve over time critically determine the function of various natural and engineered systems, including growing vasculature, neural arborization, pulmonary networks such as lungs, river basins, power distribution…

Tendrils coil their shape to anchor the plant to supporting structures, allowing vertical growth toward light. Although climbing plants have been studied for a long time, extracting information regarding the relationship between the…

Natural structural materials, such as bone and wood, can autonomously adapt their mechanical properties in response to loading to prevent failure. They smartly control the addition of material in locations of high stress by utilizing…

There is much to learn through synthesis of Developmental Biology, Cognitive Science and Computational Modeling. Our path forward involves a design for developmentally-inspired learning agents based on Braitenberg Vehicles. Continual…

The growth and scaling of organs is a fundamental aspect of animal development. However, how organs grow to the right size and shape required by physiological demands, remains largely unknown. Here, we provide a framework combining theory…

Natural bacterial habitats are often complex fluids with viscoelastic and anisotropic responses to stress; for example, they can take the form of liquid crystals (LCs), with elongated microscopic constituents that collectively align while…

Biological neural networks are characterized by their high degree of plasticity, a core property that enables the remarkable adaptability of natural organisms. Importantly, this ability affects both the synaptic strength and the topology of…

Inspired by the necessity of morphological adaptation in animals, a growing body of work has attempted to expand robot training to encompass physical aspects of a robot's design. However, reinforcement learning methods capable of optimizing…

In nature, the process of cellular growth and differentiation has lead to an amazing diversity of organisms -- algae, starfish, giant sequoia, tardigrades, and orcas are all created by the same generative process. Inspired by the incredible…

Nature offers remarkable examples of complex photonic architectures such as those responsible for the iridescent colors of butterfly wings that emerge spontaneously during growth, well before any centralized control takes place. Arising…