Billard, A.

Dillmann, R.

Infoscience - École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Robotics and Autonomous Systems 54 (2006) 351–352www.elsevier.com/locate/robotEditorialSocial mechanisms of robot programming by demonstration1. Special issue compositionThe special issue collects a subset of the best paperspresented at the ICRA’05 workshop on the Social Mechanismsof Robot Programming by Demonstration. The workshop tookplace on April 21st 2005 in Barcelona, Spain, at the IEEEConference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA’05). Eleven ofthe best papers presented at the workshop were subsequentlysubmitted for peer review before publication in the specialissue, eight of which were then selected for publication.The special issue emphasizes the role that social mech-anisms play in driving and guiding robot programming bydemonstration (RbD). It is a follow-up on our 2004 special issueon “Robot Programming by Demonstration” of the Roboticsand Autonomous Systems Journal [2].2. MotivationProgramming by demonstration (PbD) has become acentral topic of robotics, which spans across general researchareas such as human–robot interactions, machine learning,machine vision, and motor control. The field was startedby combining classical engineering approaches, typicallyfor controlling redundant manipulator arms, with artificialintelligence techniques which allow for planning in a block-world type of task representation. Incrementally, the fieldadopted an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from theneurosciences and social sciences, taking into account evidenceof specific neural mechanisms for visuo-motor imitation inprimates [5,3] as well as the developmental stages of imitationcapacities in children [7,6]. Eventually, the notion of “RobotProgramming by Demonstration” was replaced by the morebiological label of “Imitation Learning”.This special issue reflects the strong interdisciplinaryapproach of the field, focusing on the social skills that RobotPbD requires, as well as contributes.One of the core ideas of developmental psychology isthat Imitation Learning is goal-directed; actions are meant tofulfill a specific purpose and convey the intention of the actor.While a long-standing trend in RbD has been to approachthe problem from the standpoint of following trajectories andreplicating joint motions (see Aleotti and Caselli and Oginoet al., this issue), the majority of the works presented in this0921-8890/$ - see front matter c© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.robot.2006.02.001special issue start from the assumption that imitation is notjust about observing and replicating the motion, but ratherabout understanding the goals of a given action. Learning toimitate relies importantly on the imitator’s capacity to inferthe demonstrator’s intentions (see Erlhagen et al., this issue).However, demonstrations may be ambiguous and extracting theintention of the demonstrator requires the construction of acognitive model of the demonstrator (see Jansen and Belpaemeand Chella et al., this issue), as well as the use of other socialcues to provide complementary knowledge (see Breazeal et al.,this issue).Understanding the goal of the task is still only half of thepicture, as there may be several ways in which the goal maybe achieved. Moreover, what is good for the demonstrator maynot necessarily be good for the imitator. Thus, different modelsmay be allowed to compete in order to find a solution that isoptimal both from the point of view of the imitator and that ofthe demonstrator (see Demiris and Khadouri, this issue).Finally, Robot PbD is about learning skills. At its core itmust be generic in its representation of the skills and in the wayit generates them, so that the imitator can adapt its imitation todifferent contexts and to different embodiments to that of thedemonstrator (see Billard et al., this issue).3. LinksThe reader may be interested in two upcoming special issuesthat address topics complementary to Robot Programming byDemonstration.Billard and Schaal’s special issue on the “Brain Mechanismsof Imitation Learning”, to appear in April 2006 in NeuralNetworks [1] will review computational models of the neuralmechanisms underlying imitation learning in animals and theirapplication to controlling robots. This special issue will coverworks that are inherently biological in their approach and thatprovide hypotheses for further neurological and psychologicalstudies of imitation in animals.Demiris and Billard’s special issue on “Robot Learningby Observation, Demonstration, and Imitation”, to appear inAugust 2006 in the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man andCybernetics B journal [4] will put forward novel learningtechniques applied to solving RbD, from the perception andrecognition of actions through to their reproduction.352 Editorial / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 54 (2006) 351–352References[1] A. Billard, S. Schaal, Special issue on the brain mechanisms of imitationlearning, Neural Networks 19 (4) (2006).[2] A. Billard, R. Siegwart, Special issue on robot programming bydemonstration, Robotics and Autonomous Systems 47 (2004) 2–3.[3] J. Decety, T. Chaminade, J. Grezes, A.N. Meltzoff, A pet exploration of theneural mechanisms involved in reciprocal imitation, Neuroimage 15 (2002)265–272.[4] Y. Demiris, A. Billard, Special issue on robot learning by observation,demonstration and imitation, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man andCybernetics Part B (August) (2006) (in press).[5] G. Rizzolatti, L. Fadiga, L. Fogassi, V. Gallese, Resonance behaviors andmirror neurons, Archives Italiennes de Biologie 137 (2–3) (1999) 85–100.[6] J. Nadel, C. Guerini, A. Peze, C. Rivet, The Evolving Nature of Imitationas a Format for Communication, Cambridge University Press, 1999,pp. 209–234.[7] J. Piaget, Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood, Norton, New York,1962.Aude Billard∗LASA Laboratory, School of Engineering,Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne - EPFL,Station 9, 1015-Lausanne, SwitzerlandE-mail address: aude.billard@epfl.ch.Ruediger DillmannForschungszentrum Informatik, IDS, University of Karlsruhe,Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14, 76131 Karlsruhe, GermanyAvailable online 13 March 2006∗ Corresponding editor. Tel.: +41 21 693 5464; fax: +41 21 6937807.

The Social Mechanisms of Robot Programming By Demonstration

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The Social Mechanisms of Robot Programming By Demonstration

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