Tactile Active Inference Reinforcement Learning for Efficient Robotic Manipulation Skill Acquisition

Robotic manipulation holds the potential to replace humans in the execution of tedious or dangerous tasks. However, control-based approaches are not suitable due to the difficulty of formally describing open-world manipulation in reality, and the inefficiency of existing learning methods. Thus, applying manipulation in a wide range of scenarios presents significant challenges. In this study, we propose a novel method for skill learning in robotic manipulation called Tactile Active Inference Reinforcement Learning (Tactile-AIRL), aimed at achieving efficient training. To enhance the performance of reinforcement learning (RL), we introduce active inference, which integrates model-based techniques and intrinsic curiosity into the RL process. This integration improves the algorithm's training efficiency and adaptability to sparse rewards. Additionally, we utilize a vision-based tactile sensor to provide detailed perception for manipulation tasks. Finally, we employ a model-based approach to imagine and plan appropriate actions through free energy minimization. Simulation results demonstrate that our method achieves significantly high training efficiency in non-prehensile objects pushing tasks. It enables agents to excel in both dense and sparse reward tasks with just a few interaction episodes, surpassing the SAC baseline. Furthermore, we conduct physical experiments on a gripper screwing task using our method, which showcases the algorithm's rapid learning capability and its potential for practical applications

A robotic bipedal model for human walking with slips

Abstract—Slip is the major cause of falls in human locomo-tion. We present a new bipedal modeling approach to capture and predict human walking locomotion with slips. Compared with the existing bipedal models, the proposed slip walking model includes the human foot rolling effects, the existence of the double-stance gait and active ankle joints. One of the major developments is the relaxation of the non-slip assumption that is used in the existing bipedal models. We conduct extensive experiments to optimize the model parameters and to validate the proposed walking model with slips. The experimental results demonstrate that the model successfully predicts the human walking and recovery gaits with slips. I