Adaptive central pattern generators to control human/robot interactions

The presentation will concern the use of bio-inspired robot controllers based on the functioning of specific biological sensorimotor loops that control biological systems. These loops are based on specific neural network structures, called central pattern generators (CPG) that are implied in the genesis and learning of adaptive rhythmic movements. Therefore, it is interesting to better understanding and modeling these structures to have humanoid robots able to learn rhythmic movements for locomotion or for interacting with humans. After a brief introduction on biological central pattern generators and the rhythmic movements, we will introduce the concept of synchronization a principle that underlies the rhythmic interaction between humans and the dynamic oscillators. Different models of central pattern generators based on dynamic oscillators will be introduced. The second part of the presentation will present several experiments of vision-based Human-Robot motor coordination using adaptive central pattern generators. Other experiments of robot teleoperation for industrial rhythmic tasks will be introduced. Several videos of simulations and experiments will illustrate the presentation. A conclusion and perspectives will conclude the talk.