Skip to main content
Log in

An evaluation of environmental constraints for biologically constrained development of gaze control on an iCub robot

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Paladyn

Abstract

Gaze control requires the coordination of movements of both eyes and head to fixate on a target. Using our biologically constrained architecture for gaze control we show how the relationships between the coupled sensorimotor systems can be learnt autonomously from scratch, allowing for adaptation as the system grows or changes. Infant studies suggest developmental learning strategies, which can be applied to sensorimotor learning in humanoid robots. We examine environmental constraints for the learning of eye and head coupled mappings, and give results from implementations on an iCub robot. The results show the impact of these constraints and how they can be overcome to benefit the development of fast, cumulative, on-line learning of coupled sensorimotor systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. M. Asada, K. Hosoda, Y. Kuniyoshi, H. Ishiguro, T. Inui, Y. Yoshikawa, M. Ogino, and C. Yoshida, “Cognitive developmental robotics: A survey”, IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 12–34, 2009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. J. Piaget, The Child’s Conception of the World, Paladin, London, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  3. R. Pfeifer and C. Scheier, “Sensory-motor coordination: the metaphor and beyond”, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 157–178, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. L. Smith and M. Gasser, “The development of embodied cognition: Six lessons from babies”, Artificial Life, vol. 11, no. 1–2, pp. 13–29, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. D. L. Gallahue, Understanding Motor Development in Children, John Wiley, NY, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  6. R. M. Angulo-Kinzler, B. Ulrich, and E. Thelen, “Three-month-old infants can select specific leg motor solutions.”, Motor Control, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 52–68, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Darwin Muir and Jeffery Field, “Newborn infants orient to sounds”, Child Development, vol. 50, pp. 431–436, 1979.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. J. F. Rosenblith, In the Beginning: Development from Conception to Age Two, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA, second edition, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  9. C. M. Harris, M. Jacobs, F. Shawkat, and D. Taylor, “The development of saccadic accuracy in the first seven months”, Clinical Vision Sciences, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 85–96, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  10. R. Griffiths, The abilities of babies, University of London Press, London, 1954.

    Google Scholar 

  11. M. D. Sheridan, From Birth to Five Years, NFER Publishing, Windsor, USA, 1973.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  12. D. Maurer and C. Maurer, The World of the Newborn, Basic Books, New York, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  13. A. E. Milewski, “Infants’ discrimination of internal and external pattern elements”, Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 22, pp. 229–246, 1976.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. R. N. Aslin, “Visual and auditory development in infancy”, in Handbook of Infancy, J. D. Osofsky, Ed. John Wiley, New York, second edition, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  15. J. Oates, C. Wood, and A. Grayson, Psychological Development and Early Childhood, Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  16. E. Tronick, “Stimulus control and the growth of the infant’s effective visual field”, Perception & Psychophysics, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 373–376, 1972.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. M. R. Fiorentino, A Basis for Sensorimotor Development, Normal and Abnormal: The Influence of Primitive, Postural Reflexes on the Development and Distribution of Tone, Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Ill, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  18. F. Goodkin, “The development of mature patterns of head eye coordination in the human infant”, Early Human Development, vol. 4, pp. 373–386, 1980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. J. Law, M. Lee, M. Hülse, and A. Tomassetti, “The infant development timeline and its application to robot shaping”, Adaptive Behaviour, vol. 19, pp. 335–358, 2011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. G. Metta, G. Sandini, D. Vernon, L. Natale, and F Nori, “The icub humanoid robot: an open platform for research in embodied cognition”, in Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems, Washington DC, USA, 2008, ACM, pp. 50–56.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. J. Law, M. Lee, and M. Huelse, “Infant development sequences for shaping sensorimotor learning in humanoid robots”, in Proc. 10th Int. Conf. on Epigenetic Robotics, 2010, pp. 65–72.

    Google Scholar 

  22. M. H. Lee, Q. Meng, and F. Chao, “Staged competence learning in developmental robotics”, Adaptive Behaviour, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 241–255, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. A. Needham, T. Barrett, and K. Peterman, “A pick-me-up for infants’ exploratory skills: Early simulated experiences reaching for objects using ‘sticky mittens’ enhances young infants’ object exploration skills”, Infant Behavior and Development, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 279–295, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. J. Law, P. Shaw, and M. Lee, “A biologically constrained architecture for developmental learning of eye-head gaze control on a humanoid robot”, Autonomous Robots, 2013, Accepted.

    Google Scholar 

  25. M. Hülse and M. Lee, “Adaptation of coupled sensorimotor mappings: An investigation towards developmental learning of humanoids”, in SAB 2010, LNAI 6226, S. Doncieux, Ed. 2010, pp. 468–477, Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  26. R. A. Marino, C. K. Rodgers, R. Levy, and D. P. Munoz, “Spatial relationships of visuomotor transformations in the superior colliculus map”, Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 100, no. 5, pp. 2564–2576, 2008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. E. M. Klier, H. Wang, and J. D. Crawford, “The superior colliculus encodes gaze commands in retinal coordinates.”, Nat Neurosci, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 627–32, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. N. J. Gandhi and H. A. Katnani, “Motor functions of the superior colliculus”, Annual Review of Neuroscience, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 205–231, 2011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. H. H. L. M. Goossens and A. J. van Opstal, “Human eye-head coordination in two dimensions under different sensorimotor conditions”, Experimental Brain Research, vol. 114, pp. 542–560, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. X. Wang and J. Jin, “A quantitive analysis for decomposing visual signal of the gaze displacement”, in Proceedings of the Pan-Sydney area workshop on Visual information processing — Volume 11 (VIP’ 01), David Dagan Feng, Jesse Jin, Peter Eades, and Hong Yan, Eds., Darlinghurst, Australia, 2001, vol. 11, pp. 153–159, Australian Computer Society, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  31. D. Guitton and M. Volle, “Gaze control in humans: eye-head coordination during orienting movements to targets within and beyond the oculomotor range”, Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 427–459, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  32. E. Freedman, “Coordination of the eyes and head during visual orienting”, Experimental Brain Research, vol. 190, no. 4, pp. 369–387, 2008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia Shaw.

About this article

Cite this article

Shaw, P., Law, J. & Lee, M. An evaluation of environmental constraints for biologically constrained development of gaze control on an iCub robot. Paladyn 3, 147–155 (2012). https://doi.org/10.2478/s13230-013-0103-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/s13230-013-0103-y

Keywords

Navigation