Artificial intelligence
Embodied AI
Definition
Embodied AI is artificial intelligence that perceives and acts through a body in a physical or simulated environment. It connects sensing, reasoning, and action rather than producing only text or images.
Updated
A body can be simulated
An embodied agent does not have to be a physical robot. The Habitat research platform trains virtual robots in simulated 3D environments with configurable bodies and sensors. This lets researchers study tasks such as navigation before putting a system into a real space.
Connecting observations to actions
A robot needs information about its surroundings and its own state. PaLM-E studies how to bring those observations into a language model for tasks that include robotic manipulation planning. A vision-language-action model goes further by producing robot action outputs from visual observations and language instructions.
What the term does not establish
Embodied AI describes an approach to intelligence, not a particular body shape or level of autonomy. An agent in simulation and a humanoid robot can both be embodied systems. Calling either one embodied does not establish that it can work safely without supervision or perform every task a person can.
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Related terms
Humanoid robot
A humanoid robot is a robot with a body arranged to resemble the human form, usually with a torso, arms, and legs. The term describes its physical form and does not by itself establish human-level intelligence or general autonomy.
Vision-language-action model
A vision-language-action model is an AI model that uses visual observations and language instructions to produce actions for a robot. It connects what a robot sees and what it is asked to do with outputs that a robot controller can execute.
Robotic manipulation
Robotic manipulation is the use of a robot to change an object's position, orientation, or state through physical interaction. It includes grasping and moving objects as well as actions such as pushing or carrying them without a grasp.