Learning of oculo-motor control: a prelude to robotic imitation

Abstract

In order to allow robot agents to adapt their behaviour, a new approach-learning by imitation-has been proposed, in which a robot learns novel behaviours through interactions with the environment and other agents. In this paper we describe how our sighted agent, ESCHeR -who is equipped with dual foveated lenses and can control head, neck and eye joints-develops fine oculo-motor control through interaction with the environment. ESCHeR successfully learns to coordinate pan, tilt and vergence such that he can track bright moving objects and saccade rapidly to new objects of interest. In developmental terms, ESCHeR can be considered to have progressed from stage 1 to stage 2 of imitation learning. A novel representation of visual scenes is then introduced, and it is discussed how ESCHeR will use this to progress to stage 3.