Skill Learning by Autonomous Robotic Playing Using Active Learning and Exploratory Behavior Composition

Frontiers in Robotics and AI, vol. 7, pp. 42

Abstract

We consider the problem of autonomous acquisition of manipulation skills where problem-solving strategies are initially available only for a narrow range of situations. We propose to extend the range of solvable situations by autonomous play with the object. By applying previously-trained skills and behaviors, the robot learns how to prepare situations for which a successful strategy is already known. The information gathered during autonomous play is additionally used to train an environment model. This model is exploited for active learning and the generation of novel preparatory behaviors compositions. We apply our approach to a wide range of different manipulation tasks, e.g., book grasping, grasping of objects of different sizes by selecting different grasping strategies, placement on shelves, and tower disassembly. We show that the composite behavior generation mechanism enables the robot to solve previously-unsolvable tasks, e.g., tower disassembly. We use success statistics gained during real-world experiments to simulate the convergence behavior of our system. Simulation experiments show that the learning speed can be improved by around 30% by using active learning.

Authors 4

1. Simon Hangl corresponding

   Universität Innsbruck

   Affiliation as printed

   Intelligent and Interactive Systems, Department of Informatics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

2. Vedran Dunjko Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   LIACS, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

3. Hans J. Briegel

   Universität Innsbruck

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

4. Justus Piater

   Universität Innsbruck

   Affiliation as printed

   Intelligent and Interactive Systems, Department of Informatics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria