Learning Task Priorities from Demonstrations

Bimanual operations in humanoids offer the possibility to carry out more than one manipulation task at the same time, which in turn introduces the problem of task prioritization. We address this problem from a learning from demonstration perspective, by extending the Task-Parameterized Gaussian Mixture Model (TP-GMM) to Jacobian and null space structures. The proposed approach is tested on bimanual skills but can be applied in any scenario where the prioritization between potentially conflicting tasks needs to be learned. We evaluate the proposed framework in: two different tasks with humanoids requiring the learning of priorities and a loco-manipulation scenario, showing that the approach can be exploited to learn the prioritization of multiple tasks in parallel.Comment: Accepted for publication at the IEEE Transactions on Robotic

Intrinsic Motivation and Mental Replay enable Efficient Online Adaptation in Stochastic Recurrent Networks

Autonomous robots need to interact with unknown, unstructured and changing environments, constantly facing novel challenges. Therefore, continuous online adaptation for lifelong-learning and the need of sample-efficient mechanisms to adapt to changes in the environment, the constraints, the tasks, or the robot itself are crucial. In this work, we propose a novel framework for probabilistic online motion planning with online adaptation based on a bio-inspired stochastic recurrent neural network. By using learning signals which mimic the intrinsic motivation signalcognitive dissonance in addition with a mental replay strategy to intensify experiences, the stochastic recurrent network can learn from few physical interactions and adapts to novel environments in seconds. We evaluate our online planning and adaptation framework on an anthropomorphic KUKA LWR arm. The rapid online adaptation is shown by learning unknown workspace constraints sample-efficiently from few physical interactions while following given way points.Comment: accepted in Neural Network

A use case of an adaptive cognitive architecture for the operation of humanoid robots in real environments

Future trends in robotics call for robots that can work, interact and collaborate with humans. Developing these kind of robots requires the development of intelligent behaviours. As a minimum standard for behaviours to be considered as intelligent, it is required at least to present the ability to learn skills, represent skill's knowledge and adapt and generate new skills. In this work, a cognitive framework is proposed for learning and adapting models of robot skills knowledge. The proposed framework is meant to allow for an operator to teach and demonstrate the robot the motion of a task skill it must reproduce; to build a knowledge base of the learned skills knowledge allowing for its storage, classification and retrieval; to adapt and generate new models of a skill for compliance with the current task constraints. This framework has been implemented in the humanoid robot HOAP-3 and experimental results show the applicability of the approach.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: The research leading to these results has received funding from the RoboCity2030-III-CM project (Robótica aplicada a la mejora de la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos. Fase III; S2013/MIT-2748), funded by Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid and cofunded by Structural Funds of the EU

A Framework of Hybrid Force/Motion Skills Learning for Robots

Human factors and human-centred design philosophy are highly desired in today’s robotics applications such as human-robot interaction (HRI). Several studies showed that endowing robots of human-like interaction skills can not only make them more likeable but also improve their performance. In particular, skill transfer by imitation learning can increase usability and acceptability of robots by the users without computer programming skills. In fact, besides positional information, muscle stiffness of the human arm, contact force with the environment also play important roles in understanding and generating human-like manipulation behaviours for robots, e.g., in physical HRI and tele-operation. To this end, we present a novel robot learning framework based on Dynamic Movement Primitives (DMPs), taking into consideration both the positional and the contact force profiles for human-robot skills transferring. Distinguished from the conventional method involving only the motion information, the proposed framework combines two sets of DMPs, which are built to model the motion trajectory and the force variation of the robot manipulator, respectively. Thus, a hybrid force/motion control approach is taken to ensure the accurate tracking and reproduction of the desired positional and force motor skills. Meanwhile, in order to simplify the control system, a momentum-based force observer is applied to estimate the contact force instead of employing force sensors. To deploy the learned motion-force robot manipulation skills to a broader variety of tasks, the generalization of these DMP models in actual situations is also considered. Comparative experiments have been conducted using a Baxter Robot to verify the effectiveness of the proposed learning framework on real-world scenarios like cleaning a table

A Linearly Constrained Nonparametric Framework for Imitation Learning

In recent years, a myriad of advanced results have been reported in the community of imitation learning, ranging from parametric to non-parametric, probabilistic to non-probabilistic and Bayesian to frequentist approaches. Meanwhile, ample applications (e.g., grasping tasks and humanrobot collaborations) further show the applicability of imitation learning in a wide range of domains. While numerous literature is dedicated to the learning of human skills in unconstrained environments, the problem of learning constrained motor skills, however, has not received equal attention. In fact, constrained skills exist widely in robotic systems. For instance, when a robot is demanded to write letters on a board, its end-effector trajectory must comply with the plane constraint from the board. In this paper, we propose linearly constrained kernelized movement primitives (LC-KMP) to tackle the problem of imitation learning with linear constraints. Specifically, we propose to exploit the probabilistic properties of multiple demonstrations, and subsequently incorporate them into a linearly constrained optimization problem, which finally leads to a non-parametric solution. In addition, a connection between our framework and the classical model predictive control is provided. Several examples including simulated writing and locomotion tasks are presented to show the effectiveness of our framework