Bio-inspired system for gesture imitation applied in robotics

Abstract

This  work  describes  the  necessary  aspects  for  the  programming  of  a  robot  through  the  paradigm  of  learning  by  demonstration  and  it  proposes  a  system  that  keeps  concordance  with  what  is  known  about  the  functioning  of  biological systems. Four gestures performed by the arm of different human demonstrators were used in the imitation performed by a simulated arm. To achieve these gesture imitations, a Visual-Motor map was created which allows the robot to give its own interpretation of the observed gesture. The imitation performance was evaluated for its quality and quantity. New indicators are presented for the four gestures that make possible the imitation evaluation beyond the following of the trajectory usually performed in order to define the success of the imitation. The imitation was successful in 3 of the 4 gestures and scored an average of 62% for the poll and 78.6% for the indicators.