Robotics Co-Createdwith Life
The mission of this initiative is to pioneer a new paradigm of robotics created together with living systems through original interdisciplinary research grounded in the deep integration of biology and engineering. While conventional bio-hybrid research has largely focused on the simple coupling of biological components with mechanical elements, our initiative seeks to move beyond this framework by directly implementing higher-order biological functions—such as sensing, motion, and adaptation—within robotic systems. Through this approach, we aim to establish a new principle termed Bio-driven Emergent Robotics, in which biological and mechanical systems interact and cooperate to generate functionality. By integrating capabilities that living organisms have acquired through evolution into engineered systems, we seek to create machines that think, adapt, and evolve together with life. Such systems will enable new capabilities in sensing, navigation, and environmental adaptation that have been difficult to achieve with conventional robotics technologies. Ultimately, this research will establish a new academic foundation that expands the principles of robotic design and control.
The Bio-driven Emergent Robotics Initiative advances a new paradigm of robotics grounded in the deep integration of biological and mechanical systems. While conventional bio-hybrid research has largely focused on attaching biological components to machines, functional mismatches between living systems and mechanical platforms have limited their real-world deployment. To overcome this challenge, the initiative develops integrated bio–machine interfaces and control technologies, redesigns and enhances biological functions, and builds robotic platforms in which living components can operate naturally. Through these efforts, we seek to establish a new research field termed Bio-driven Emergent Robotics, where biological and mechanical systems interact to generate functionality. By bringing together life sciences, robotics, materials science, information science, and the humanities, the initiative creates new technological foundations for applications such as disaster response, environmental monitoring, and medical technologies. Leveraging Shinshu University’s unique biological resources and interdisciplinary research environment, we advance and disseminate the academic foundations of next-generation robotics worldwide.
Director of the Bio-driven Emergent Robotics Initiative, Shinshu University
TERUTSUKI Daigo
