A new research has introduced the physical counterpart of digital AI, namely physical artificial intelligence (PAI), which is the theory and practice of synthesising nature-like intelligent robotic systems. Thus opening up a new frontier in AI research, it also recognises that this is a multidisciplinary challenge for future research. A multi-level educational methodology has been suggested for equipping the students and researchers for creating symbiotic human-robot ecosystems.

The research titled "Skills for Physical Artificial Intelligence" by Aslan Miriyev and Mirko Kovac, has been published in Nature Machine Intelligence. As per the authors, the five disciplines that will play a key role in developing PAI skills are materials science, mechanical engineering, computer science, biology and chemistry. “The development of robot bodies has significantly lagged behind the development of robot brains. Unlike digital AI, which has been intensively explored in the last few decades, breathing physical intelligence into them has remained comparatively unexplored,” said Kovac.

Lack of a coherent structure for education and training for PAI has been recognised as the primary obstacle by the authors, therefore, they have suggested a methodology that needs to encompass the following three components: Institutional support; appreciation of the complexity and challenges of working in AI research; and existence of venues for research recognition and dissemination. Professor Kovac said: “We envision Physical AI robots being evolved and grown in the lab by using a variety of unconventional materials and research methods. Researchers will need a much broader stock of skills for building lifelike robots, and cross-disciplinary collaborations and partnerships will be very important.”

An intelligent behaviour in robots will result from a close interaction between the structure of the brain, body morphology and interaction with the environment. “Creating lifelike robots has thus far been an impossible task, but it could be made possible by including Physical AI in the higher education system. Developing skills and research in Physical AI could bring us closer than ever to redefining human-robot and robot-environment interaction," said Miriyev.