LAUSR

Soft robotics has become a new frontier in robotic research, where multidisciplinary study on advanced sensing and actuation benefits new capabilities that cannot be found in conventional rigid robots. Recent new research trends in soft robotics are originated from development of novel materials. These advances in materials engineering, thus, are promising for development of soft novel functions in robots. There is also a large body of studies on design, fabrication, kinematic modeling, and low-level control. Inspired by embodied intelligence, morphological computation has become an emerging tool for bringing new functionalities in soft robots, since the advances in materials are not always available. A computation can be computed by physical systems, such as digital computers, quantum computers, molecular computers, and so on. There are also mechanical computers with mechanical parts for accomplishment of basic computations. Morphological computation can be categorized into mechanical computer, where its own body is utilized as an efficient computation mean. Morphological computation in soft robotics is characterized by studies on geometry, mechanics, and dynamics of soft objects or a series of soft objects (with different softness) in accomplishment of specific tasks in locomotion, manipulation, and sensing. The characteristics of soft objects are different from those of rigid bodies, where soft robots have inherently infinitedof (degrees of freedom) in their mechanical system but only a limited number of actuation can be introduced to the system. Thus, morphological studies would help reveal efficient mechanisms for facilitating the desired interaction between soft-bodied robots and environment, as well as perceptions such as tactile sensation. Keeping above key attributes in mind, organizers of this special issue attempted to solicit original papers, survey papers on novel mechanisms in sensing and actuation, which are benefited from morphological computation in control and perception. There are nine submissions, of which four original papers have been accepted for publication in this special issue. The review paper (by Bernth et al.) investigates the role of morphological computation in design of haptic sensing and discusses potential future avenues of research. The concept of morphological computation will first be more rigorously defined, followed by an investigation into how nature has solved the problem of touch and a discussion of how such morphological principles could inspire design of similar systems in robotics. The second paper by Watanabe and Tsukagoshi investigates a suitable morphology for realization of efficient movement of a pneumatically actuated soft sheet. Authors attempted to evaluate generated waveform patterns using mathematical basis for sorting out suitable structure of the soft robot, then conducted experiment on the actual robot. The third paper is a research by Hauser's group. This work utilized a model-free approach by employing the concept of morphological computation for control of a highly complex pneumatically driven robotic arm. This interesting work brings the morphological computation-based control approach closer to real industrial applications. The last paper in this special issue is a study of Nakamura's group on development of a soft axial extension actuator for increasing the moving distance of the robot in a single motion. By installing this new actuator on a pipe inspection robot, experimental results show that morphological computation allows peristaltic crawling to increase the speed of the robot. We would like to thank all authors who submitted original papers to this special issue. We also would like to show our appreciation to reviewers who brought insightful comments for improvement of submitted papers’ quality. Last but not least, our thanks also go to Advanced Robotics, particularly Ms. Noriko Watanabe, for their assistance in preparation of this special issue.