Robots show us how to teach them: feedback from robots shapes tutoring behavior during action learning

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 19;9(3):e91349. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091349. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Robot learning by imitation requires the detection of a tutor's action demonstration and its relevant parts. Current approaches implicitly assume a unidirectional transfer of knowledge from tutor to learner. The presented work challenges this predominant assumption based on an extensive user study with an autonomously interacting robot. We show that by providing feedback, a robot learner influences the human tutor's movement demonstrations in the process of action learning. We argue that the robot's feedback strongly shapes how tutors signal what is relevant to an action and thus advocate a paradigm shift in robot action learning research toward truly interactive systems learning in and benefiting from interaction.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Feedback, Psychological*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Learning
  • Male
  • Robotics*

Grants and funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Honda Research Institute Europe. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.