Towards a Shared Embodied Intelligence of Humanoid Robots: Optimization, Development, and Testing of the Human-Aware ergoCub Robot

Towards a Shared Embodied Intelligence of Humanoid Robots: Optimization, Development, and Testing of the Human-Aware ergoCub Robot | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Towards a Shared Embodied Intelligence of Humanoid Robots: Optimization, Development, and Testing of the Human-Aware ergoCub Robot Carlotta Sartore, Mohamed Elobaid, Lorenzo Rapetti, Giulio Romualdi, and 12 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6122130/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Collaboration is an inherent aspect of human behavior, enabling tasks that are otherwise impossible for individuals alone. This collaborative ability stems from the capacity of individuals to coordinate their actions by leveraging internal representations of their companions—a concept known as shared intelligence. Additionally, humans are characterized by physical bodies and cognitive abilities that are optimized in response to their environment, a phenomenon referred to as embodied cognition. In this paper, we propose an architecture that combines shared intelligence and embodied cognition to enable robots to physically collaborate with humans, where robot hardware and control are optimized for human metrics, using representations of the human body and motion intelligence. By doing so, our ultimate aim is to design humanoid robots that possess a degree of shared embodied intelligence. More specifically, the proposed architecture optimizes the robot’s hardware and physical intelligence parameters with respect to human ergonomic metrics. We achieve this by deriving models of human-robot interaction parameterized with respect to the robot’s hardware configurations and by incorporating human models into the robot’s physical intelligence. As a tangible outcome of the proposed architecture, we present the humanoid robot ergoCub, whose body and physical intelligence have been optimized for performing collaborative actions with humans. Our approach yields concrete results in designing humanoid robots that prioritize human ergonomics at both the hardware and physical intelligence levels. The potential applications of this approach span diverse fields, including industrial and assistive robotics. Physical sciences/Engineering/Mechanical engineering Physical sciences/Engineering/Biomedical engineering Humanoid robots Physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files video.mp4 Towards a Shared Embodied Intelligence of Humanoid Robots: Optimization, Development and Testing of the Human-Aware ergoCub Robot Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6122130","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":443046506,"identity":"8a4e7f0a-c23b-4904-ad69-daa7fb8df0a5","order_by":0,"name":"Carlotta Sartore","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA5klEQVRIie3PoWvDQBTH8d8RqCqcvZr0X3jhYGql/8qVQmoiBjFxuzFoZGz+j0D1hYiY1E+NqOiMmImIdR0bRCRnJ+6r7okP7x3gcv3PmJmM3GMaoGVjoOj3BWxe2YsGLZspIYPlNTy9tubjc9yCV93QJ+++rL20xdM4S0RzojJXFGgRytw0sXyoLIcRQlRrRUwLSJRndbhYCe/uZK95PXyT58L2fRI/Ww4a0X2LIs9CxFuHMg/l8SyiGE2jgvx22O1zcpbwLGRt/+jvMl4XSBK15Vnd9v3oz5K/VpNJ2YHL5XK5FvoCaFVSTcA4wVQAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Carlotta","middleName":"","lastName":"Sartore","suffix":""},{"id":443046507,"identity":"228ac148-1ed9-4f5a-964e-134059a30ccc","order_by":1,"name":"Mohamed Elobaid","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mohamed","middleName":"","lastName":"Elobaid","suffix":""},{"id":443046508,"identity":"2784c8dc-eccb-4ad0-adc7-d07cf62c2c0b","order_by":2,"name":"Lorenzo Rapetti","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lorenzo","middleName":"","lastName":"Rapetti","suffix":""},{"id":443046509,"identity":"d79b9e6e-9726-4d8c-b638-f3b6929c4118","order_by":3,"name":"Giulio Romualdi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Giulio","middleName":"","lastName":"Romualdi","suffix":""},{"id":443046510,"identity":"9e08ac9d-64c6-4d38-992a-1190c793485e","order_by":4,"name":"Stefano Dafarra","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1575-5188","institution":"Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Stefano","middleName":"","lastName":"Dafarra","suffix":""},{"id":443046511,"identity":"df69cf08-a258-4699-b669-f7ca6a0c6b68","order_by":5,"name":"Nicola A. 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