Soft, Robotic Cells from morph Embed Physical AI into Hardware

As artificial intelligence advances, many developers focus exclusively on software, but London-based startup morph is taking a different route. The company treats embodied AI as a challenge that spans both hardware and software. Rather than separating computation from physical structure, morph embeds sensing and adaptive control directly into reconfigurable, deformable materials. This enables real-time changes in morphology and stiffness, producing soft cells that can be integrated into a variety of robots.

“We’re running real-time physical AI models that can take sensory information and understand it,” said Dr. Jean Nehme, founder of morph, in an interview with The Robot Report. “Then the cells will morphologically change and adapt to affect a change, whether that’s motion, support, or protection. We have sensing cells that are soft and able to receive and understand information, and then fundamentally adjust to effect change in shape to benefit a product or a value.”

Bridging the Gap Between Hardware and Software

Inspired by the adaptability of octopuses, morph aims to accelerate physical AI systems by tightly integrating AI development with hardware. Nehme believes this integration is essential. “I don’t believe that you can build robots with hardware separate, the physical, and AI separate. It just doesn’t work,” he said. “We’re not born with just hardware alone. We’re born with intelligence that learns.”

The company’s robotic cells have intelligence embedded directly into the materials, allowing them to sense, adapt, and respond to both the body and the environment in real time. In the long term, Nehme hopes to create models that can generalize across different environments. “If you watch a puppy or a tiny baby learn and adapt, you can see how they’re trying to use a model that helps them think through, ‘How do I grip this?’” he said. “That integration is super important, and we’re doing that right from the front end.”

Why Soft Robotics?

Morph’s focus on soft, deformable materials stems from two core beliefs. First, the company sees soft robotics as a more interesting approach for applications beyond industrial warehouses. “I understand the concept of having humanoids do things in a warehouse,” Nehme noted. “You’re going to have to do a lot to make them much more ready for the wider world. Part of that, I think, is going to be soft integration in some way.”

Second, soft materials offer flexibility and scalability. “We think soft is highly adaptable and highly scalable. Manufacturing cost is going to be much more efficient, and we’re excited to deploy form factors optimized for many different environments,” Nehme added.

Soft robotics does present challenges, particularly in predicting material behavior compared to rigid systems. However, recent computational advances have made simulation and testing feasible. “Before, trying to mathematically model fluid dynamics was super hard,” said Nehme. “Now, with more compute power available from hyperscalers like Google and NVIDIA, you can run interesting compute models that allow you to design, simulate, test, and deploy deformable, fluid-actuated systems in ways that couldn’t exist before.”

Partnering with Industry

Morph’s soft robotic cells can be placed into multiple products to better respond to human movement and interaction. The company operates as a B2B software, design, and fabrication partner, working with industries to enable soft robotics technology. “We’re looking for anyone working on a robotics problem that requires a deformable, soft component,” Nehme said. “We’ve built a design engine, a manufacturing stack, and the ability to deploy and test models for specific applications.”

Initially, morph is focusing on healthcare applications such as athletic performance, injury prevention, and mobility support. Over time, the programmable platform will scale to categories including automotive and industrial safety. “We’re excited to partner with folks across industries,” Nehme added. “People can reach out to us; we’re a collaborative organization.”

Celebrity Investor Brings New Perspectives

As morph emerged from stealth, it announced backing from investors including 8VC, Copper, Qubit Health Capital, Valia Ventures, and Blue Lion. Notable individual backers include Harvey Spevak, chairman of Equinox Group, and musician Pharrell Williams.

“Pharrell is a very avid robotics fan and owns some robots,” said Nehme. “Outside of the song that we all know, I think he fundamentally believes in investing in things that can make the world happier and better. He’s someone I really enjoy spending time with, and he’s very involved in the business.”

Nehme emphasized that perspectives from outside the robotics industry are essential for true innovation. “Fundamentally, I believe that innovation is a function of multiple people with different perspectives looking at a problem and sharing and discussing,” he said. “You have to have outside views. To have real innovation, you have to be challenged—and to be challenged, you need someone to look at a problem with a very different lens.”

The source for this article is https://www.therobotreport.com/soft-robotic-cells-from-morph-embed-physical-ai-into-hardware/.