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One question kept me on my toes for more than 25 years of robotics research: How do bodies sometimes solve physical interaction problems before the brain has time to think?

What if intelligence is not confined to the brain, but emerges from the interaction of body, materials, and environment?

Why can a fish swim upstream in turbulent water with ease, while even advanced robots struggle with similar tasks?

Why does a human hand sense subtle textures not just through the skin, but through the structure of bone, nail, and movement?

And why do systems - biological or artificial - become more capable not by adding computation, but by better coupling with the world?

Drawing from decades of research in robotics, human motor control, and soft systems, this book introduces the concept of ghost circuits - transient, self-organising systems that form when structures and forces align to solve problems together.

Through a series of vivid, real-world examples, the book reveals how this principle appears across domains:

• A dead trout drifting upstream by coupling with flowing water
• A cyclist learning to stabilise through posture and stiffness
• A fingertip using bone and nail to shape tactile perception
• Soft robotic systems that “compute” through material and form
• Neural systems that predict and adapt through interaction
• Biological evolution and epigenetics as long-term tuning processes

Extending these ideas into the future, the book explores how robots are beginning to participate in similar processes - learning not just through code, but through interaction, failure, and redesign.

Rather than replacing humans, these systems form part of a larger, distributed network of intelligence - where human skill, machine learning, and physical interaction converge.

This perspective challenges long-held assumptions about intelligence, control, and design.
It suggests that:

• better robots may come not from more computation, but better embodiment
• health and well-being may depend on how we interact with our environments
• future technologies will evolve through continuous coupling, not top-down control

Ghost Circuits offers a new lens on intelligence—one that connects biology, robotics, and everyday experience into a single, coherent framework.

It is a book about how systems learn to move, adapt, and belong in the world—and what that means for the future of both humans and machines.

This book explains how to design and control a soft robot in understandable language. In addition, it provides a comprehensive coverage of the essential theory and techniques used in soft robotics that can be used by graduate ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ in soft robotics. The book covers several key areas in soft robots, ranging from design and fabrication to modelling and control. It also includes many case studies and examples. The book clearly explains mathematical concepts and uses illustrative explanation to help engineers and junior graduate ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ understand the physical meaning of the key concepts and approaches in soft robotics. 

Reading this book gives professional engineers and ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ a sound knowledge of soft robotics that they can take to their careers and research.

From aeronautics and manufacturing to healthcare and disaster management, systems engineering (SE) now focuses on designing applications that ensure performance optimization, robustness, and reliability while combining an emerging group of heterogeneous systems to realize a common goal.
Use SoS to Revolutionize Management of Large Organizations, Factories, and Systems Intelligent Control Systems with an Introduction to System of Systems Engineering integrates the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and systems control in a framework applicable to both simple dynamic systems and large-scale system of systems (SoS). For decades, NASA has used SoS methods, and major manufacturers—including Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop-Grumman, Raytheon, BAE Systems—now make large-scale systems integration and SoS a key part of their business strategies, dedicating entire business units to this remarkably efficient approach.
Simulate Novel Robotic Systems and ApplicationsTranscending theory, this book offers a complete and practical review of SoS and some of its fascinating applications, including:

• Manipulation of robots through neural-based network control
• Use of robotic swarms, based on ant colonies, to detect mines
• Other novel systems in which intelligent robots, trained animals, and humans cooperate to achieve humanitarian objectives

Training engineers to integrate traditional systems control theory with soft computing techniques further nourishes emerging SoS technology. With this in mind, the authors address the fundamental precepts at the core of SoS, which uses human heuristics to model complex systems, providing a scientific rationale for integrating independent, complex systems into a single coordinated, stabilized, and optimized one. They provide readers with MATLAB® code, which can be downloaded from the publisher's website to simulate presented results and projects that offer practical, hands-on experience using concepts discussed throughout the book.