# Evolving soft locomotion in aquatic and terrestrial environments: effects of material properties and environmental transitions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.06605 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06605/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 17 Nov 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Evolution Gym: A Large-Scale Benchmark for Evolving Soft Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.09863/) (2022)
- [DiffuseBot: Breeding Soft Robots With Physics-Augmented Generative Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17053/) (2023)
- [Leveraging Hyperbolic Embeddings for Coarse-to-Fine Robot Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.00462/) (2023)
- [Evolution and learning in differentiable robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14712/) (2024)
- [Embodied Co-Design for Rapidly Evolving Agents: Taxonomy, Frontiers, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.04770/) (2025)
- [Collective control of modular soft robots via embodied Spiking Neural Cellular Automata](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.02099/) (2022)
- [Evolving Embodied Intelligence: Graph Neural Network--Driven Co-Design of Morphology and Control in Soft Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.19582/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Designing soft robots poses considerable challenges: automated design approaches may be particularly appealing in this field, as they promise to optimize complex multi-material machines with very little or no human intervention. Evolutionary soft robotics is concerned with the application of optimization algorithms inspired by natural evolution in order to let soft robots (both morphologies and controllers) spontaneously evolve within physically-realistic simulated environments, figuring out how to satisfy a set of objectives defined by human designers. In this paper a powerful evolutionary system is put in place in order to perform a broad investigation on the free-form evolution of walking and swimming soft robots in different environments. Three sets of experiments are reported, tackling different aspects of the evolution of soft locomotion. The first two sets explore the effects of different material properties on the evolution of terrestrial and aquatic soft locomotion: particularly, we show how different materials lead to the evolution of different morphologies, behaviors, and energy-performance tradeoffs. It is found that within our simplified physics world stiffer robots evolve more sophisticated and effective gaits and morphologies on land, while softer ones tend to perform better in water. The third set of experiments starts investigating the effect and potential benefits of major environmental transitions (land - water) during evolution. Results provide interesting morphological exaptation phenomena, and point out a potential asymmetry between land-water and water-land transitions: while the first type of transition appears to be detrimental, the second one seems to have some beneficial effects.