There have been two ways of approaching intelligence: the traditional approach, where the focus has been on the study of the control or the neural system itself and a more recent approach that is centered around the notion of 'embodiment,' the idea that intelligence always requires a body, a complete organism that interacts with the real world. This chapter explores the deeper and more important consequences, concerned with connecting brain, body, and environment, or more generally with the relation between physical and information (neural, control) processes. Often, morphology and materials can take over some of the functions normally attributed to the brain (or the control), a phenomenon called 'morphological computation.' A number of case studies are presented to illustrate how 'morphological computation' can be exploited for designing intelligent, adaptive robotic systems, and to understand natural systems. We conclude with a theoretical scheme that can be used to embed the diverse case studies and that captures the essence of embodiment and morphological computation.

Inspec keywords: neurocontrollers; biomechanics; artificial intelligence; adaptive systems; robot dynamics; brain

Other keywords: design principles; information process; natural systems; control process; adaptive systems; physical process; brain interaction; adaptive robotic systems; neural process; neural system; morphological computation; intelligence

Subjects: Robotics