Intelligent Liquid Integrated Functional Entity: A Basic Way to Innovate Future Advanced Biomimetic Soft Robotics

The liquid is an essential component of natural creatures with profound capacities in assisting homeostatic regulation of physiological functions. However, its participation in more diverse biological behaviors, such as intelligence, motion, energy, etc., is seriously neglected and is undisclosed thus far. Herein, it is considered whether liquid systems can offer pivotal hints in the development of intelligent machines. Starting from this core point, a basic conjecture is proposed that specifically equips a robotic system with liquid that brings about revolutionary design of intelligent systems and plays an elementary role in molding future advanced soft robots. Through a comparative analogy between artificially made machines and natural animals, the basic category of the so‐termed Intelligent Liquid Integrated Functional Entity (I‐LIFE) is drafted and thus enabled. Then, functions of such unconventional robotic liquid are expounded from five aspects, including motion, energy supply, material performance tuning, sensing, and intelligence, respectively. Typical application examples are also illustrated. Furthermore, a group of intelligent liquids are recommended as candidates for developing future robotic systems. The fundamental scientific and technological challenges lying behind these recommendations are outlined. Finally, prospects of I‐LIFE are pointed out, which stimulates the increasing design of a future generation of innovative intelligent robotic systems.