Research >> Projects

This is an earlier conference paper version of the work:

Maja J Mataric, Matthew Williamson, John Demiris, and Aswath Mohan, Behavior-Based Primitives for Articulated Control, Proceedings, Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB '98), Zurich, Switzerland, Aug 17-21, 1998, MIT Press. Click here to view a movie file file of Adonis dancing the Macarena by using a combination of three types of behaviors: 1) move-to-point (by impedance control), 2) get-posture (by joint angle control) and 3) avoid (by applying virtual forces). Click here to view the first part of the Macarena, without the collision avoidance behavior, using only move-to-point and get-posture.

This is another conference paper:

Maja J Mataric, Victor Zordan, and Zach Mason, Movement Control Methods for Complex, Dynamically Simulated Agents: Adonis Dances the Macarena", Proceedings, Autonomous Agents '98, Minneapolis/St. Paul, May 10-13, 1998. In the paper, we demonstrate two controllers for the Macarena, one drawn from animation (torque-based) and the other inspired by neurocsience data (force-field-based). Here are movie files of the two controllers: the torque-based controller and the force-field-based controller. (Note: the shown motion includes improvements made since the paper was written. The total running time has been decreased by 3/5, making this controller's timing closer to that of the torque-based control and human data. These improvements should provide a more insightful comparison of the controller motions.)

This is a workshop paper focusing on motor primitives:

John Demiris and Maja J Mataric, Perceptuo-Motor Primitives in Imitation, Working Notes, Autonomous Agents '98 Workshop on Agents In Interaction - Acquiring Competence Through Imitation, Minneapolis/St. Paul, May 10, 1998.