Seahorse-inspired swiss army knife: versatile robot manipulators that also solve evolutionary problems

In this project we study the evolutionary adaptive nature of the seahorse tail by means of a robotic manipulator design process. The project relies on the co-learned embodiment and control by means of differentiable programming, starting from the morphology of a seahorse. By developing a parameterised, biomechanical model, this will lead to a versatile robotic manipulator that gives us a platform to test hypotheses on adaptive evolution in biology.