Autonomous Robot Hitting Task Using Dynamical System Approach

We propose a model that autonomously generates and flexibly organizes sequences of timed actions. The timing of the movements is controlled by non-linear oscillators. Their activation and deactivation is organized by a hierarchical neural-dynamic architecture. We demonstrate the features of our model in an exemplary robotic task where the manipulator arm keeps hitting a ball up an inclined plane. The autonomous generation of movement sequences is tightly coupled to visual sensory information about the ball motion and able to adapt, on-line, to perturbations introduced in the ball trajectory. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated and the reactions to different perturbations are discussed.