# A soft robot that adapts to environments through shape change

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06397 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.06397/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Aug 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Severe Damage Recovery in Evolving Soft Robots through Differentiable Programming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.06674/) (2022)
- [Shape Change and Control of Pressure-based Soft Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.00467/) (2022)
- [AI-driven Inverse Design of Band-Tunable Mechanical Metastructures for Tailored Vibration Mitigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12122/) (2024)
- [Body Discovery of Embodied AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19941/) (2025)
- [Reinforcement learning in linear embedding space unlocks generalizable control across soft robot configurations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.08104/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Many organisms, including various species of spiders and caterpillars, change their shape to switch gaits and adapt to different environments. Recent technological advances, ranging from stretchable circuits to highly deformable soft robots, have begun to make shape-changing robots a possibility. However, it is currently unclear how and when shape change should occur, and what capabilities could be gained, leading to a wide range of unsolved design and control problems. To begin addressing these questions, here we simulate, design, and build a soft robot that utilizes shape change to achieve locomotion over both a flat and inclined surface. Modeling this robot in simulation, we explore its capabilities in two environments and demonstrate the existence of environment-specific shapes and gaits that successfully transfer to the physical hardware. We found that the shape-changing robot traverses these environments better than an equivalent but non-morphing robot, in simulation and reality.