Babybot challenge: Motor skills

Abstract

In 1984, von Hofsten performed a longitudinal study of early reaching in infants between the ages of 1 week and 19 weeks. This paper proposes a possible model using excitation of various subsystems to reproduce the longitudinal study. The model is then implemented and tested on an iCub humanoid robot, and the results compared to the original study. The resulting model shares interesting similarities to the data presented by von Hofsten, in particular a slight dip in the quantity of reaching. However, the dip is shifted along by a few weeks, and the analysis of hand behaviour is inconclusive based on the data recorded.