The robot that moves using only the intelligence of the body and physics

No chip. No code. No artificial intelligence. But compressed air and rubber tubes, moved with wisdom by the laws of physics. In an era in which artificial intelligence invades every corner of technology a group of scientists in Amsterdam has chosen to go in the opposite direction. They have created a compressed air robot, with oscillating legs, that moves without sensors, without electronics and without a single line of code. But it walks, jumps and swims.

Published in Science , a study by researchers at the AMOLF institute in the Netherlands describes a surprisingly simple robot—made of flexible tubes—that could change the way we think about machine intelligence. “It’s order emerging from chaos,” explained the study’s lead author, Italian researcher Alberto Comoretto.

The robot that moves without chips or artificial intelligence created by an Italian researcher

Order emerging from chaos: how the robot moves

The robot moves thanks to a continuous flow of compressed air. Taken alone, each leg — a flexible tube — moves chaotically, a bit like the inflatable men in front of gas stations. But when the legs are connected to each other, something surprising happens: they begin to synchronize. They find a rhythm. And then, as if capable of following a natural impulse of their own nature, they walk.

“It’s hypnotic,” says Comoretto, a doctoral student in soft robotics. “There’s no code, just physics. The legs self-organize and, once in sync, they go. And they go fast.”

The robot travels a distance equal to 30 times its own length every second — an unprecedented speed for a soft robot. For comparison, a press release announcing the study explains, a Ferrari “only” reaches 20.

But the real twist is in its ability to adapt. Without sensors or centralized control, the robot changes gait when it encounters an obstacle. On land, it jumps. In water, it swims freestyle. All of this emerges solely from the interaction between its flexible body and its surroundings.

“It’s a form of decentralized intelligence,” says Mannus Schomaker, a co-author of the study. “Just like starfish, which coordinate hundreds of peduncles without a central brain, this robot adapts thanks to local feedback.”

Less brain, less algorithms, more body

In a field dominated by complex algorithms and sophisticated hardware, this creation seems almost revolutionary in its simplicity. Bas Overvelde, director of the Soft Robotic Matter group at AMOLF, puts it bluntly: “It’s not even a robot, strictly speaking. It’s a machine. But it behaves like a living being.”

The implications are profound. If intelligent behaviors can emerge from simple systems, perhaps we are misjudging robotics and intelligence itself.

“Less brain, more body,” Comoretto says. “Less code, more physics.” And perhaps hidden in the simplest materials is a complexity we’ve only just begun to understand.