This Robot Taught Itself To Shoot A Bow and Arrow
Posted by Martin_Connelly on Sunday, Sep 26, 2010
File this under Robots Are Going To Take Over The World
Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology helped this little iCub learn to shoot a bow and arrow, all by itself. It hit the bullseye after eight tries. Eight. I don’t think I could do that. Granted…the arrow didn’t stick, but still. Eight.
Petar Kormushev, one of the guys behind the project, explains:
The learning algorithm, called ARCHER (Augmented Reward Chained Regression) algorithm, was developed and optimized specifically for problems like the archery training, which have a smooth solution space and prior knowledge about the goal to be achieved. In the case of archery, we know that hitting the center corresponds to the maximum reward we can get. Using this prior information about the task, we can view the position of the arrow’s tip as an augmented reward.
ARCHER uses a chained local regression process that iteratively estimates new policy parameters which have a greater probability of leading to the achievement of the goal of the task, based on the experience so far. An advantage of ARCHER over other learning algorithms is that it makes use of richer feedback information about the result of a rollout.
The iCub is an open source robot funded by the European Commission. It also looks pretty cute in a head dress.
The archery project will be presented at the Humanoids 2010 conference in December. If you can’t make the conference, but want a better idea of the algorithm behind the madness, check out the paper (pdf).
via: Kormushev, from dvice photo: Flickr/petar_kormushevFiled under:
About the author
Martin Connelly is a freelance transmedia journalist based in St. John's, Newfoundland. He's worked across borders, both figurative and literal: as a newsroom editor for China Central Television In...
