Imagine a world where your morning coffee is brewed by a robot that remembers your exact preferences, your home is cleaned by a machine with human-like dexterity, and factories are staffed by tireless humanoids capable of performing intricate tasks with ...

Even outdoor robots, which are typically able to navigate uneven terrain, may struggle when they encounter challenges they were not specially programmed to overcome. The same robot that impressively sprints across an open field might as well be a toaster when it gets stuck in mud or, worse still, loses a limb.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, robots can already perform many tasks that would otherwise require humans. In this interview, Edoardo Milana, a junior professor of soft machines in the Department of Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg ...