Recently, the research titled “Bio-inspired Cognitive Navigation for Robots” was published online in Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering. The work was completed by the team led by Professor YU Zhiwen from the College of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University (HEU), with Professor YU serving as the co-corresponding author.
Overcoming Bottlenecks: Building a “Biological Brain” for Embodied Agents
This breakthrough not only opens new avenues for deploying embodied navigation in extreme, complex, and energy-constrained environments such as planetary exploration, marine settings, and underground spaces, but also charts an innovative technical path for the deep interdisciplinary integration of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and embodied intelligence.
HEU’s “Intelligent Internet of Things and Swarm Intelligence Computing” Team conducts cutting-edge research in underwater swarm intelligence, human–machine integrated intelligence, and embodied intelligence, focusing on intelligent collaboration and efficient operation systems for harsh marine and complex scenarios. The team maintains close cooperation with institutes and enterprises including the 716th and 709th Research Institutes of CSSC and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, advancing the transformation and industrialization of advanced technologies.
As a National Science and Technology Innovation Team, it has received numerous honors, including the First Prize of the Ministry of Education Natural Science Award and the First Prize of Heilongjiang Province Science and Technology Progress Award. The publication in this Nature journal marks HEU’s internationally recognized achievements in frontier interdisciplinary fields such as swarm intelligence computing and embodied intelligence.
Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering, a flagship journal under Nature, publishes cutting-edge reviews in electrical and electronic engineering, intelligent sensing, and control.
Paper link:https://www.nature.com/articles/s44287-026-00294-7
