The humanoid Saika that catches a thrown ball

Abstract

This paper addresses ball-catching behavior by the humanoid robot Saika. The aim of this study is to implement human skills on the humanoid in the same manner as human performs them. The behavior of catching a falling and a thrown ball is chosen as an example of dynamic skilful manipulation. Considering the human behavior we realize ball-catching behavior by three steps: (a) localization of the ball by the vision system, (b) prediction of the ball's path to determine the catching point, and (c) reaching out the hand to the catching point by a neural network inverse kinematics model. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of the catching strategies.