The Humanoid Perspective

In recent years, humanoid robotics have been the§object of growing interest and investments in the§academic and industrial worlds. And indeed,§autonomous robots are announced to imminently enter§our households. However, beyond the boastful§declarations, many challenges still remain to be met§on this way. This book focuses on one of the most§fundamental ones, the question of action-oriented§space representation and motor learning. Highlighting§the main difficulties encountered by researchers, it§shows how taking inspiration from the human space§representation and motor control can lead to original§robotics solutions. It suggests a way to enable a§humanoid to learn how to control its limbs and to§learn simple tasks from human demonstrations.§In doing so, the book explores a fruitful but§difficult dialogue between engineering and cognitive§sciences, illustrating its potential benefits and§pitfalls. This book is intended to people wishing to§have a more precise idea of current advances in§humanoid space representation and motor learning, as§well as for scientists who may find it a useful§source of inspiration for their own research.