Integrated motor control, planning, grasping and high-level reasoning in a blocks world using probabilistic inference

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Toussaint ◽  
Nils Plath ◽  
Tobias Lang ◽  
Nikolay Jetchev
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Probabilistic Inference ◽  
High Level ◽  
Blocks World

scholarly journals Infants in Control: Prospective Motor Control and Executive Functions in Action Development

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janna M. Gottwald
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Motion Tracking ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Action Sequences ◽  
High Level

This thesis assesses the link between action and cognition early in development. Thus the notion of an embodied cognition is investigated by tying together two levels of action control in the context of reaching in infancy: prospective motor control and executive functions. The ability to plan our actions is the inevitable foundation of reaching our goals. Thus actions can be stratified on different levels of control. There is the relatively low level of prospective motor control and the comparatively high level of cognitive control. Prospective motor control is concerned with goal-directed actions on the level of single movements and movement combinations of our body and ensures purposeful, coordinated movements, such as reaching for a cup of coffee. Cognitive control, in the context of this thesis more precisely referred to as executive functions, deals with goal-directed actions on the level of whole actions and action combinations and facilitates directedness towards mid- and long-term goals, such as finishing a doctoral thesis. Whereas prospective motor control and executive functions are well studied in adulthood, the early development of both is not sufficiently understood.This thesis comprises three empirical motion-tracking studies that shed light on prospective motor control and executive functions in infancy. Study I investigated the prospective motor control of current actions by having 14-month-olds lift objects of varying weights. In doing so, multi-cue integration was addressed by comparing the use of visual and non-visual information to non-visual information only. Study II examined the prospective motor control of future actions in action sequences by investigating reach-to-place actions in 14-month-olds. Thus the extent to which Fitts’ law can explain movement duration in infancy was addressed. Study III lifted prospective motor control to a higher that is cognitive level, by investigating it relative to executive functions in 18-months-olds.Main results were that 14-month-olds are able to prospectively control their manual actions based on object weight. In this action planning process, infants use different sources of information. Beyond this ability to prospectively control their current action, 14-month-olds also take future actions into account and plan their actions based on the difficulty of the subsequentaction in action sequences. In 18-month-olds, prospective motor control in manual actions, such as reaching, is related to early executive functions, as demonstrated for behavioral prohibition and working memory. These findings are consistent with the idea that executive functions derive from prospective motor control. I suggest that executive functions could be grounded in the development of motor control. In other words, early executive functions should be seen as embodied.

Acoustic Patterns of Apraxia of Speech

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Kent ◽  
John C. Rosenbek
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Motor Control ◽  
Intensity Variation ◽  
Steady States ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Motor Programming ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Error Patterns ◽  
High Level ◽  
Reduced Intensity

Apraxia of speech (or verbal apraxia) is a controversial disorder, considered by some to be an impairment of the motor programming of speech. Because the disorder is characterized by "higher orderrdquo; errors such as metathesis and segment addition as well as by errors of apparent dyscoordination of articulation, it seems to reflect a relatively high level of damage to the nervous system. This report presents acoustic descriptions of the speech of seven persons diagnosed as having apraxia of speech but without severe aphasic impairmaent, especially agrammatism. The acoustic results indicate a variety of segmental and prosodic atmormalities, including slow speaking rate with prolongations of transitions, steady states, and intersyllable pauses; reduced intensity variation across syllables; slow and inaccurate movements of the articulators; incoordination of voicing with other articulations; initiation difficulties; and errors of selection or sequencing of segments. These error patterns are discussed with respect to a theory of motor control based on spatial-temporal schemata. In addition, consideration is given to the controversy about phonologic versus motor programming impairment in apraxia of speech.

scholarly journals Duplication of Modules Facilitates the Evolution of Functional Specialization

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaele Calabretta ◽  
Stefano Nolfi ◽  
Domenico Parisi ◽  
Günter P. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Functional Specialization ◽  
Duplicated Genes ◽  
Modular Architecture ◽  
Control Units ◽  
Feed Forward Network ◽  
Modular Architectures ◽  
Functional Context ◽  
High Level

The evolution of simulated robots with three different architectures is studied in this article. We compare a nonmodular feed-forward network, a hardwired modular, and a duplication-based modular motor control network. We conclude that both modular architectures outperform the non-modular architecture, both in terms of rate of adaptation as well as the level of adaptation achieved. The main difference between the hardwired and duplication-based modular architectures is that in the latter the modules reached a much higher degree of functional specialization of their motor control units with regard to high-level behavioral functions. The hardwired architectures reach the same level of performance, but have a more distributed assignment of functional tasks to the motor control units. We conclude that the mechanism through which functional specialization is achieved is similar to the mechanism proposed for the evolution of duplicated genes. It is found that the duplication of multifunctional modules first leads to a change in the regulation of the module, leading to a differentiation of the functional context in which the module is used. Then the module adapts to the new functional context. After this second step the system is locked into a functionally specialized state. We suggest that functional specialization may be an evolutionary absorption state.

scholarly journals Multicentric tracking of multiple agents by anterior cingulate cortex during pursuit and evasion

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Bum Michael Yoo ◽  
Jiaxin Cindy Tu ◽  
Benjamin Yost Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Pursuit Evasion ◽  
Pursuit And Evasion ◽  
High Level ◽  
Hippocampal Complex

AbstractSuccessful pursuit and evasion require rapid and precise coordination of navigation with adaptive motor control. We hypothesize that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), which communicates bidirectionally with both the hippocampal complex and premotor/motor areas, would serve a mapping role in this process. We recorded responses of dACC ensembles in two macaques performing a joystick-controlled continuous pursuit/evasion task. We find that dACC carries two sets of signals, (1) world-centric variables that together form a representation of the position and velocity of all relevant agents (self, prey, and predator) in the virtual world, and (2) avatar-centric variables, i.e. self-prey distance and angle. Both sets of variables are multiplexed within an overlapping set of neurons. Our results suggest that dACC may contribute to pursuit and evasion by computing and continuously updating a multicentric representation of the unfolding task state, and support the hypothesis that it plays a high-level abstract role in the control of behavior.

scholarly journals Motor coordination and strategic cooperation in joint action

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solène LE BARS
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Joint Action ◽  
Motor Coordination ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Strategic Processes ◽  
Strategic Cooperation ◽  
Joint Agency ◽  
High Level ◽  
Prosocial Behaviours ◽  
Different Levels

Naturalistic joint action usually requires both motor coordination and strategic cooperation. However, these two fundamental processes have systematically been studied independently. We devised a novel collaborative task, combining different levels of motor noise with different levels of strategic noise, to determine whether sense of agency (the experience of control over an action) reflects the interplay between these low-level (motor) and high-level (strategic) processes. We also examined how dominance in motor control could influence prosocial behaviours. We found that self-agency was particularly dependent on motor cues while joint agency was particularly dependent on strategic cues. We suggest that the prime importance of strategic cues for joint agency reflects the co-representation of co-agents’ interests during the task. Furthermore, we observed a reduction of prosocial strategies in agents who exerted a dominant motor control over the joint action, showing that the strategic dimension of human interactions is also reliant on low-level motor features.

scholarly journals A State Space Model of a Visuomotor Rotation Experiment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireille E. Broucke
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
State Space ◽  
Linear Time ◽  
State Space Model ◽  
Visuomotor Rotation ◽  
Human Motor Control ◽  
Space Model ◽  
Linear Time Invariant ◽  
Human Motor ◽  
High Level

We present a new linear time-invariant (LTI) state space model to explain adaptation in human motor control. We focus on a visuomotor rotation experiment in which a human subject must rapidly move a cursor on a horizontal screen through a target disk. The hand itself is occluded from view, while the cursor is rotated relative to the hand angle by an amount of r degrees. Our model is based on the application of well-known techniques from control theory, in particular regulator theory. The model is simple, yet it reveals a plausible architecture for the high level computations underlying human motor control, including a representation of the internal model. It is a two state LTI model, where each state has a physical interpretation

scholarly journals Multicentric tracking of multiple agents by anterior cingulate cortex during pursuit and evasion

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Bum Michael Yoo ◽  
Jiaxin Cindy Tu ◽  
Benjamin Yost Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Pursuit Evasion ◽  
Pursuit And Evasion ◽  
High Level ◽  
Hippocampal Complex

SUMMARYSuccessful pursuit and evasion require rapid and precise coordination of navigation with adaptive motor control. We hypothesized that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), which communicates bidirectionally with both the hippocampal complex and premotor/motor areas, would serve a mapping role in this process. We recorded responses of dACC ensembles in two macaques performing a joystick-controlled continuous pursuit/evasion task. We found that dACC multiplexes two sets of signals, (1) world-centric variables that together form a representation of the position and velocity of all relevant agents (self, prey, and predator) in the virtual world, and (2) avatar-centric variables, i.e. self-prey distance and angle. Both sets of variables are multiplexed within an overlapping set of neurons. Our results suggest that dACC may contribute to pursuit and evasion by computing and continuously updating a multicentric representation of the unfolding task state, and support the hypothesis that it plays a high-level abstract role in the control of behavior.

scholarly journals Hierarchical generative modelling for autonomous robots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Yuan ◽  
Noor Sajid ◽  
Karl Friston ◽  
Zhibin Li
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Humanoid Robot ◽  
Autonomous Robots ◽  
Generative Model ◽  
Hierarchical Architecture ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Task Completion ◽  
Final Destination ◽  
High Level ◽  
Generative Modelling

Abstract Humans can produce complex movements when interacting with their surroundings. This relies on the planning of various movements and subsequent execution. In this paper, we investigated this fundamental aspect of motor control in the setting of autonomous robotic operations. We consider hierarchical generative modelling—for autonomous task completion—that mimics the deep temporal architecture of human motor control. Here, temporal depth refers to the nested time scales at which successive levels of a forward or generative model unfold: for example, the apprehension and delivery of an object requires both a global plan that contextualises the fast coordination of multiple local limb movements. This separation of temporal scales can also be motivated from a robotics and control perspective. Specifically, to ensure versatile sensorimotor control, it is necessary to hierarchically structure high-level planning and low-level motor control of individual limbs. We use numerical experiments to establish the efficacy of this formulation and demonstrate how a humanoid robot can autonomously solve a complex task requiring locomotion, manipulation, and grasping, using a hierarchical generative model. In particular, the humanoid robot can retrieve and deliver a box, open and walk through a door to reach the final destination. Our approach, and experiments, illustrate the effectiveness of using human-inspired motor control algorithms, which provide a scalable hierarchical architecture for autonomous performance of complex goal-directed tasks.

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