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Learning from Demonstration (Programming by Demonstration)

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Encyclopedia of Robotics

Synonyms

Behavioral cloning; Inverse optimal control; Imitation learning

Definition

Learning from demonstration (LfD), also called programming by demonstration (PbD), refers to the process used to transfer new skills to a machine by relying on demonstrations from a user. It is inspired by the imitation capability developed by humans and animals to acquire new skills. LfD aims at making programming accessible to novice users by providing them with an intuitive interface they are familiar with, as humans already exchange knowledge in this way.

Overview

In robotics, LfD appeared as a way to reprogram a robot without having to rely on a computer language or a complex interface. It instead introduces more intuitive skill transfer interactions with the robot (Billard et al., 2016; Argall et al., 2009). The goal is to provide user-friendly interfaces that do not require knowledge in computer programming or robotics. LfD can be considered at various levels, from the transfer of low-level...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland

    Sylvain Calinon

Authors
  1. Sylvain Calinon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sylvain Calinon .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Blk 1E Gillman Hts #17-43, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Marcelo H Ang

  2. Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

    Oussama Khatib

  3. Dipto di Informatica e Sistemistca, Univ di Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy

    Bruno Siciliano

Section Editor information

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University of Technology & Education, 1600, Chungjeol-ro, Byeongcheon-myeon, Dongnam-gu Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, 330-708, Cheon-An, Chungcheong, Republic of Korea

    Jee-Hwan Ryu

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Calinon, S. (2018). Learning from Demonstration (Programming by Demonstration). In: Ang, M., Khatib, O., Siciliano, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_27-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_27-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41610-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41610-1

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