Impedance-Based Gaussian Processes for Modeling Human Motor Behavior in Physical and Non-Physical Interaction.

OBJECTIVE

Modeling of human motor intention plays an essential role in predictively controlling a robotic system in human-robot interaction tasks. In most machine learning techniques, human motor behavior is modeled as a generic stochastic process. However, the integration of a priori knowledge about underlying system structures can provide insights on otherwise unobservable intrinsic states that yield the superior prediction performance and increased generalization capabilities.

METHODS

We present a novel method for modeling human motor behavior that explicitly includes a neuroscientifically supported model of human motor control, in which the dynamics of the human arm are modeled by a mechanical impedance that tracks a latent desired trajectory. We adopt a Bayesian setting by defining Gaussian process (GP) priors for the impedance elements and the latent desired trajectory. This enables exploitation of a priori human arm impedance knowledge for regression of interaction forces through inference of a latent desired human trajectory.

RESULTS

The method is validated using simulated data, with particular focus on effects of GP prior parameterization and intention estimation capabilities. The superior prediction performance is shown with respect to a naive GP prior. An experiment with human participants evaluates generalization capabilities and effects of training data sparsity.

CONCLUSION

We derive the correlations of an impedance-based GP model of human motor behavior that exploits a priori knowledge.

SIGNIFICANCE

The model effectively predicts interaction forces by inferring a latent desired human trajectory in previously observed as well as unobserved regions of the input space.