Embodiment and Morphological Computation

Question 1

What is Morphological Computation?

Answer 1

Morphological computation is a term, which captures conceptually the observation that biological systems take advantage of their morphology to conduct computations needed for a successful interaction with their environment

Question 2

Examples in Biology

Answer 2

Insect compound eye, non-homogeneous arrangement essentially does preprocessing to compensate for motion parallax

Trout: when dead the movement of the trout is almost identical to its movement in water when alive. This indicates a very efficient movement and that its morphology contributes to its behaviour.

Erodium seed: humidity causes seed to “burrow”/”screw” into the ground.

Question 3

Weird mechanical example that Helmut is obsessed with? Other examples

Answer 3

Fucking Slinky

Coffe-balloon gripper, Passive walkers, tensegrity robots, Fake octopus thing