Body schema learning for robotic manipulators from visual self-perception

We present an approach to learning the kinematic model of a robotic manipulator arm from scratch using self-observation via a single monocular camera. We introduce a flexible model based on Bayesian networks that allows a robot to simultaneously identify its kinematic structure and to learn the geometrical relationships between its body parts as a function of the joint angles. Further, we show how the robot can monitor the prediction quality of its internal kinematic model and how to adapt it when its body changes-for example due to failure, repair, or material fatigue. In experiments carried out both on real and simulated robotic manipulators, we verified the validity of our approach for real-world problems such as end-effector pose prediction and end-effector pose control.