Evidence of movement variability patterns during a repetitive pointing task until exhaustion.

Human movement is characterized by its variability: the same task is never performed twice in exactly the same way. This variability is believed to play a functional role in movement performance and adaptability, as well as in preventing musculoskeletal damage. This article focuses on the time-evolution of movement variability throughout a repetitive pointing task until exhaustion.

Task Feasibility Maximization Using Model-Free Policy Search and Model-Based Whole-Body Control.

Producing feasible motions for highly redundant robots, such as humanoids, is a complicated and high-dimensional problem. Model-based whole-body control of such robots can generate complex dynamic behaviors through the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks. Unfortunately, tasks are generally planned without close consideration for the underlying controller being used, or the other tasks being executed, and are often infeasible when executed on the robot.

Optimization-Based Controllers for Robotics Applications (OCRA): The Case of iCub's Whole-Body Control.

OCRA stands for Optimization-based Control for Robotics Applications. It consists of a set of platform-independent libraries which facilitates the development of optimization-based controllers for articulated robots. Hierarchical, weighted, and hybrid control strategies can easily be implemented using these tools.