Movement Control Methods for Complex, Dynamically Simulated Agents: Adonis Dances the Macarena

Abstract

We describe and compare two implemented controllers for Adonis, a physically simulated humanoid torso, one based on joint-space torques and the other on convergent force-fields applied to the hands. The two come from different application domains: the former is a common approach in manipulator robotics and graphics, while the latter is inspired by biological limb control. Both avoid explicit inverse kinematic calculations found in standard Cartesian control, trading generality of motion for programming efficiency. The two approaches are compared on a common sequential task, the familiar dance "Macarena" and evaluated based on ease of generating new behaviors, flexibility, and naturalness of movement; we also compare them against human performance on the same task. Finally, we discuss the tradeoffs and present a more general framework for addressing complex motor control of simulated agents. 1 Introduction Control of humanoid agents, dynamically simulated or physical, is an extremely ...