Developmental human-robot imitation learning of drawing with a neuro dynamical system

This paper mainly deals with robot developmental learning on drawing and discusses the influences of physical embodiment to the task. Humans are said to develop their drawing skills through five phases: 1) Scribbling, 2) Fortuitous Realism, 3) Failed Realism, 4) Intellectual Realism, 5) Visual Realism. We implement phases 1) and 3) into the humanoid robot NAO, holding a pen, using a neuro dynamical model, namely Multiple Timescales Recurrent Neural Network (MTRNN). For phase 1), we used random arm motion of the robot as body babbling to associate motor dynamics with pen position dynamics. For phase 3), we developed incremental imitation learning to imitate and develop the robot's drawing skill using basic shapes: circle, triangle, and rectangle. We confirmed two notable features from the experiment. First, the drawing was better performed for shapes requiring arm motions used in babbling. Second, performance of clockwise drawing of circle was good from beginning, which is a similar phenomenon that can be observed in human development. The results imply the capability of the model to create a developmental robot relating to human development.