Intelligent Soft Matter: Towards Embodied Intelligence

Abstract

Intelligent soft matter stands at the intersection of materials science, physics, and cognitive science, promising to change how we design and interact with materials. This transformative field seeks to create materials that possess life-like capabilities, such as perception, learning, memory, and adaptive behavior. Unlike traditional materials, which typically perform static or predefined functions, intelligent soft matter dynamically interacts with its environment. It integrates multiple sensory inputs, retains experiences, and makes decisions to optimize its responses. Inspired by biological systems, these materials intend to leverage the inherent properties of soft matter: flexibility, self-evolving, and responsiveness to perform functions that mimic cognitive processes. By synthesizing current research trends and projecting their evolution, we present a forward-looking perspective on how intelligent soft matter could be constructed, with the aim of inspiring innovations in fields such as biomedical devices, adaptive robotics, and beyond. We highlight new pathways for integrating design of sensing, memory and action with internal low-power operations and discuss challenges for practical implementation of materials with "intelligent behavior". These approaches outline a path towards to more robust, versatile and scalable materials that can potentially act, compute, and "think" by their inherent intrinsic material behaviour beyond traditional smart technologies relying on external control.