Now more than ever, researchers are rethinking the way robots are designed and controlled — from the algorithms that govern their actions to the very atomic structure of the materials they are made from. In this Perspective, we collect and comment on recent efforts towards multipurpose machines that use shape-morphing materials and components to adapt to changing environments. To frame our discussion, we point out biological adaptation strategies that have been adopted by robots across different sizes and timescales. This contextualization segways into the notion of adaptive morphogenesis, which is formally defined as a design strategy in which adaptive robot morphology and behaviours are realized through unified structural and actuation systems. However, since its introduction, the term has been more colloquially used to describe ‘evolution on demand’. We set out by giving examples of current systems that exhibit adaptive morphogenesis. Then, outlining projected key application areas of adaptive morphogenesis helps to scope the challenges and possibilities on the road to realizing future systems. We conclude by proposing performance metrics for benchmarking this emerging field. With this Perspective, we hope to spur dialogue among materials scientists, roboticists and biologists, and provide an objective lens through which we can analyse progress towards robots with rapidly mutable features that eclipse what is possible in biological processes.

现在，研究人员比以往任何时候都更加重新思考机器人的设计和控制方式——从控制机器人行为的算法到制造机器人的材料的原子结构。在本视角中，我们收集并评论了最近在使用变形材料和组件来适应不断变化的环境的多功能机器方面所做的努力。为了框架我们的讨论，我们指出了不同尺寸和时间尺度的机器人所采用的生物适应策略。这种情境化融入了自适应形态发生的概念，它被正式定义为一种设计策略，其中自适应机器人形态和行为是通过统一的结构和驱动系统实现的。然而，自推出以来，该术语更通俗地用于描述“按需进化”。我们首先给出了表现出适应性形态发生的当前系统的例子。然后，概述自适应形态发生的预计关键应用领域有助于确定实现未来系统道路上的挑战和可能性。最后，我们提出了对这一新兴领域进行基准测试的绩效指标。有了这个视角，我们希望促进材料科学家、机器人学家和生物学家之间的对话，并提供一个客观的镜头，通过它我们可以分析具有快速可变特征的机器人的进展，这些特征使生物过程中的可能性黯然失色。