The paper presents a method to guide the self-organised development of behaviours of autonomous robots. In earlier publications we demonstrated how to use the homeokinesis principle and dynamical systems theory to obtain self-organised playful but goal-free behaviour. Now we extend this framework by reinforcement signals. We validate the mechanisms with two experiment with a spherical robot. Th...

On-line full body imitation with a humanoid robot standing on its own two feet requires simultaneously maintaining the balance and imitating the motion of the demonstrator. In this paper we present a method that allows real-time motion imitation while maintaining stability, based on prioritized task control. We also describe a method of modified prioritized kinematic control that constrains the...

Problem statement: Human ping-pong players determine the stroke trajectory according to their experience before the ball enters their court. However, to enable a humanoid robot to select the appropriate stroke motion based on skills learned from 3D motion, important patterns must be generated to simplify the complex 3D motion. Approach: This study developed an effective strategy for teaching pi...

This paper presents the design and implementation of a singularity-free tracking algorithm for robot manipulators using a hybrid system approach. A hybrid robot motion controller is designed to ensure feasible robot motion in the neighborhood of kinematic singularities. The hybrid control system has a two-layered hierarchical structure, a discrete layer and a continuous layer. The robot workspa...

The control and coordination of multiple mobile robots is a challenging task; particularly in environments with multiple, rapidly moving obstacles and agents. This paper describes a robust approach to multi-robot control, where robustness is gained from competency at every layer of robot control. The layers are: (i) a central coordination system (MAPS), (ii) an action system (AES), (iii) a navi...

Path planning of mobile robot is related to generating safest trajectories within its work space by avoiding obstacles, escaping traps and finally reaches its destination within optimal period. While an autonomous mobile robot is motion, each robot task needs a different form of learning because of its environmental changes. To select suitable robotic action at different environmental situation...

For a robot in a dynamic environment, the ability to detect motion is crucial. Motion often indicates areas of the robot’s surroundings that are changing, contain another agent, or are otherwise worthy of attention. Although legs are arguably the most versatile means of locomotion for a robot, and thus the best suited to an unknown or changing domain, existing methods for motion detection eithe...

The authors have proposed a dynamic turning control system of a quadruped robot by using nonlinear oscillators. It is composed of a spontaneous locomotion controller and voluntary motion controller. In this article, capability of dynamic turning motion of the proposed control system is verified through numerical simulations and hardware experiments: Various turning speed and orientation make th...

The features inherent in the visual motion field of a mobile robot indicate important clues about its navigation and environment. Combining these visual clues with additional inertial sensor information allows reliable detection of navigation direction for a mobile robot and the independent motion which may be present in the scene. The motion field, which is the 2D projection of the 3D scene va...