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On the interplay between morphological, neural and environmental dynamics: a robotic case study

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 08:43 authored by Max Lungarella, Luc BerthouzeLuc Berthouze
The robust and adaptive behavior exhibited by natural organisms is the result of a complex interaction between various plastic mechanisms acting at different time scales. So far, researchers have concentrated on one or another of these mechanisms, but little has been done toward integrating them into a unified framework and studying the result of their interplay in a real-world environment. In this article, we present experiments with a small humanoid robot that learns to swing. They illustrate that the exploitation of neural plasticity, entrainment to physical dynamics, and body growth (where each mechanism has a specific time scale) leads to a more efficient exploration of the sensorimotor space and eventually to a more adaptive behavior. Such a result is consistent with observations in developmental psychology.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Adaptive Behavior

ISSN

1059-7123

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Issue

3-4

Volume

10

Page range

223-241

Department affiliated with

  • Informatics Publications

Notes

Originality: First published study of a robotic system learning to swing (in contrast to being controlled for it). Rigour: Data obtained from a real robotic system, built in-house. Significance: Uses robots to investigate research questions from developmental psychology. Provides empirical evidence supporting the stabilizing role of freezing and freeing of the degrees of freedom on the learning of a complex motor skill as proposed by Bernstein in 1967. Impact: Total citations (Web of Science, Google Scholar) for this paper and its preceding conference papers are 11.

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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