Binding tactile and visual sensations via unique association by cross-anchoring between double-touching and self-occlusion

Binding is one of the most fundamental cognitive functions, how to find the correspondence of sensations between different modalities such as vision and touch. Without a priori knowledge on this correspondence, binding is regarded to be a formidable issue for a robot since it often perceives multiple physical phenomena in its different modal sensors, therefore it should correctly match the foci of attention in different modalities that may have multiple correspondences each other. We suppose that learning the multimodal representation of the body should be the first step toward binding since the morphological constraints in self-body-observation would make the binding problem tractable. The multimodal sensations are expected to be constrained in perceiving own body so as to configurate the unique parts of the multiple correspondence reflecting its morphology. In this paper, we propose a method to match the foci of attention in vision and touch through the unique association by cross-anchoring different modalities. Simple experiments show the validity of the proposed method

How does an infant acquire the ability of joint attention?: A Constructive Approach

This study argues how a human infant acquires the ability of joint attention through interactions with its caregiver from the viewpoint of a constructive approach. This paper presents a constructive model by which a robot acquires a sensorimotor coordination for joint attention based on visual attention and learning with self-evaluation. Since visual attention does not always correspond to joint attention, the robot may have incorrect learning situations for joint attention as well as correct ones. However, the robot is expected to statistically lose the data of the incorrect ones as outliers through the learning, and consequently acquires the appropriate sensorimotor coordination for joint attention even if the environment is not controlled nor the caregiver provides any task evaluation. The experimental results suggest that the proposed model could explain the developmental mechanism of the infant’s joint attention because the learning process of the robot’s joint attention can be regarded as equivalent to the developmental process of the infant’s one

A Constructive Model of Mother-Infant Interaction towards Infant’s Vowel Articulation

Human infants seem to develop to acquire common phonemes to adults without the capability to articulate or any explicit knowledge. To understand such unrevealed human cognitive development, building a robot which reproduces such a developmental process seems effective. It will also contribute to a design principle for a robot that can communicate with human beings. This paper hypothesizes that the caregiver’s parrotry to the coo of the robot plays an important role in the phoneme acquisition process based on the implication from behavioral studies, and propose a constructive model for it. We validate the proposed model by examining whether a real robot can acquire Japanese vowels through interactions with its caregiver

Bio-inspired Musculoskeletal Robotics Foot with Toe Joint and Plantar Intrinsic Muscle in Tiptoe Motion

The 11th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines. Kobe University, Japan. 2023-06-06/09. Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines Organizing Committee.Poster Session P4

Body Scheme Acquisition by Cross Modal Map Learning among Tactile, Visual, and Proprioceptive Spaces

How to represent own body is one of the most interesting issues in cognitive developmental robotics which aims to understand the cognitive developmental processes that an intelligent robot would require and how to realize them in a physical entity. This paper presents a cognitive model how the robot acquires its own body representation, that is body scheme for the body surface. The internal observer assumption makes it difficult for a robot to associate the sensory information from different modalities because of the lacking of references between them that are usually given by the designer in the prenatal stage of the robot. Our model is based on cross-modal map learning among join, vision, and tactile sensor spaces by associating different pairs of sensor values when they are activated simultaneously. We show a preliminary experiment, and then discuss how our model can explain the reported phenomenon on body scheme and future issues

Foldable Wings Inspired by Earwig Hindwings

The 11th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines. Kobe University, Japan. 2023-06-06/09. Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines Organizing Committee.Poster Session P4

Stretch reflex improves rolling stability during hopping of a decerebrate system

When humans hop, attitude recovery can be observed in both the sagittal and frontal planes. While it is agreed that the brain plays an important role in leg placement, the role of low-level feedback (the stretch reflex) on frontal plane stabilization remains unclear. Seeking to better understand the contribution of the soleus stretch reflex to rolling stability, we performed experiments on a biomimetic humanoid hopping robot. Various reflex responses to touching the floor, ranging from no response to long muscle activations, were examined, and the effect of a delay upon touching the floor was also examined. We found that the stretch reflex brought the system closer to stable, straight hopping. The presence of a delay did not affect the results; both the cases with and without a delay outperformed the case without a reflex response. The results of this study highlight the importance of low-level control in locomotion for which body stabilization does not require higher-level signals.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/10/1/016008/meta;jsessionid=8394D6E9724906C836DC3624B5BF2F90.c1

Effect of Soft Abdomen on Quadrupedal Gait Control

The 11th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines. Kobe University, Japan. 2023-06-06/09. Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines Organizing Committee.Poster Session P5

Producing alternating gait on uncoupled feline hindlimbs: muscular unloading rule on a biomimetic robot

Studies on decerebrate walking cats have shown that phase transition is strongly related to muscular sensory signals at limbs. To further investigate the role of such signals terminating the stance phase, we developed a biomimetic feline platform. Adopting link lengths and moment arms from an Acinonyx jubatus, we built a pair of hindlimbs connected to a hindquarter and attached it to a sliding strut, simulating solid forelimbs. Artificial pneumatic muscles simulate biological muscles through a control method based on EMG signals from walking cats (Felis catus). Using the bio-inspired muscular unloading rule, where a decreasing ground reaction force triggers phase transition, stable walking on a treadmill was achieved. Finally, an alternating gait is possible using the unloading rule, withstanding disturbances and systematic muscular changes, not only contributing to our understanding on how cats may walk, but also helping develop better legged robots.The authors acknouledge the Japanese Research Grant KAKENHI Kiban 23220004 and 25540117.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01691864.2013.87049

The experimental investigation of foot slip-turning motion of the musculoskeletal robot on toe joints

Owing to their complex structural design and control system, musculoskeletal robots struggle to execute complicated tasks such as turning with their limited range of motion. This study investigates the utilization of passive toe joints in the foot slip-turning motion of a musculoskeletal robot to turn on its toes with minimum movements to reach the desired angle while increasing the turning angle and its range of mobility. The different conditions of plantar intrinsic muscles (PIM) were also studied in the experiment to investigate the effect of actively controlling the stiffness of toe joints. The results show that the usage of toe joints reduced frictional torque and improved rotational angle. Meanwhile, the results of the toe-lifting angle show that the usage of PIM could contribute to preventing over-dorsiflexion of toes and possibly improving postural stability. Lastly, the results of ground reaction force show that the foot with different stiffness can affect the curve pattern. These findings contribute to the implementations of biological features and utilize them in bipedal robots to simplify their motions, and improve adaptability, regardless of their complex structure