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Autonomous Motion Book Chapter Implications of Action-Oriented Paradigm Shifts in Cognitive Science Dominey, P. F., Prescott, T. J., Bohg, J., Engel, A. K., Gallagher, S., Heed, T., Hoffmann, M., Knoblich, G., Prinz, W., Schwartz, A. In The Pragmatic Turn - Toward Action-Oriented Views in Cognitive Science, 18:333-356, 20, Strüngmann Forum Reports, vol. 18, J. Lupp, series editor, (Editors: Andreas K. Engel and Karl J. Friston and Danica Kragic), The MIT Press, 18th Ernst Strüngmann Forum, May 2016 (In press)
An action-oriented perspective changes the role of an individual from a passive observer to an actively engaged agent interacting in a closed loop with the world as well as with others. Cognition exists to serve action within a landscape that contains both. This chapter surveys this landscape and addresses the status of the pragmatic turn. Its potential influence on science and the study of cognition are considered (including perception, social cognition, social interaction, sensorimotor entrainment, and language acquisition) and its impact on how neuroscience is studied is also investigated (with the notion that brains do not passively build models, but instead support the guidance of action). A review of its implications in robotics and engineering includes a discussion of the application of enactive control principles to couple action and perception in robotics as well as the conceptualization of system design in a more holistic, less modular manner. Practical applications that can impact the human condition are reviewed (e.g. educational applications, treatment possibilities for developmental and psychopathological disorders, the development of neural prostheses). All of this foreshadows the potential societal implications of the pragmatic turn. The chapter concludes that an action-oriented approach emphasizes a continuum of interaction between technical aspects of cognitive systems and robotics, biology, psychology, the social sciences, and the humanities, where the individual is part of a grounded cultural system.
The Pragmatic Turn - Toward Action-Oriented Views in Cognitive Science 18th Ernst Strüngmann Forum Bibliography Chapter URL BibTeX
Autonomous Motion Book Chapter Learning Action-Perception Cycles in Robotics: A Question of Representations and Embodiment Bohg, J., Kragic, D. In The Pragmatic Turn - Toward Action-Oriented Views in Cognitive Science, 18:309-320, 18, Strüngmann Forum Reports, vol. 18, J. Lupp, series editor, (Editors: Andreas K. Engel and Karl J. Friston and Danica Kragic), The MIT Press, 18th Ernst Strüngmann Forum, May 2016 (In press)
Since the 1950s, robotics research has sought to build a general-purpose agent capable of autonomous, open-ended interaction with realistic, unconstrained environments. Cognition is perceived to be at the core of this process, yet understanding has been challenged because cognition is referred to differently within and across research areas, and is not clearly defined. The classic robotics approach is decomposition into functional modules which perform planning, reasoning, and problem-solving or provide input to these mechanisms. Although advancements have been made and numerous success stories reported in specific niches, this systems-engineering approach has not succeeded in building such a cognitive agent. The emergence of an action-oriented paradigm offers a new approach: action and perception are no longer separable into functional modules but must be considered in a complete loop. This chapter reviews work on different mechanisms for action- perception learning and discusses the role of embodiment in the design of the underlying representations and learning. It discusses the evaluation of agents and suggests the development of a new embodied Turing Test. Appropriate scenarios need to be devised in addition to current competitions, so that abilities can be tested over long time periods.
18th Ernst Strüngmann Forum The Pragmatic Turn- Toward Action-Oriented Views in Cognitive Science Bibliography Chapter URL BibTeX
Autonomous Motion Book Chapter Autonomous Robots Schaal, S. In Jahrbuch der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, May 2015 BibTeX
Autonomous Motion Book Chapter Robot Learning Peters, J., Lee, D., Kober, J., Nguyen-Tuong, D., Bagnell, J. A., Schaal, S. In Springer Handbook of Robotics 2nd Edition, 1371-1394, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2015 BibTeX
Movement Generation and Control Autonomous Motion Book Chapter Using Torque Redundancy to Optimize Contact Forces in Legged Robots Righetti, L., Buchli, J., Mistry, M., Kalakrishnan, M., Schaal, S. In Redundancy in Robot Manipulators and Multi-Robot Systems, 57:35-51, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013
The development of legged robots for complex environments requires controllers that guarantee both high tracking performance and compliance with the environment. More specifically the control of contact interaction with the environment is of crucial importance to ensure stable, robust and safe motions. In the following, we present an inverse dynamics controller that exploits torque redundancy to directly and explicitly minimize any combination of linear and quadratic costs in the contact constraints and in the commands. Such a result is particularly relevant for legged robots as it allows to use torque redundancy to directly optimize contact interactions. For example, given a desired locomotion behavior, it can guarantee the minimization of contact forces to reduce slipping on difficult terrains while ensuring high tracking performance of the desired motion. The proposed controller is very simple and computationally efficient, and most importantly it can greatly improve the performance of legged locomotion on difficult terrains as can be seen in the experimental results.
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Autonomous Motion Book Chapter Adaptive stair-climbing behaviour with a hybrid legged-wheeled robot Eich, M., Grimminger, F., Kirchner, F. In Advances In Mobile Robotics, 768-775, World Scientific, August 2008 DOI BibTeX