CRCNS US-German-Israeli Collaborative Research Proposal: Hierarchical Coordination of Complex Actions

人类在许多领域胜过机器。例如，当需要与物理环境进行协调交互时，人类（和动物）的表现远远超过现代机器人。尽管生物系统的“硬件”和“湿软件”要慢得多，而且比最现代的机器人还要复杂得多，但这种情况还是发生了。该研究项目旨在了解复杂性在人类感觉和运动表现中的作用。将研究在具有挑战性的平衡条件下的人类行走，并包括使用手杖来增强稳定性。研究人员强调，在具有挑战性的环境中学习平衡应该导致新的康复疗法（有或没有机器人辅助），以帮助恢复平衡和行走（例如，中风后）。研究人员将创建适合K-12学生在线演示的教育单元，并将根据他们的研究为波士顿科学博物馆设计展品。在这个项目中要测试的中心假设是，涉及与对象的物理交互的复杂运动是由模块或原语组成的层次结构组织起来的。实验将研究正常人如何学会在窄梁上行走。不同圆度的梁会带来不同的挑战。手持手杖将改变可用的支持（就像儿童自行车上的辅助轮）。结合机器学习的计算机模拟将研究组织作为层次结构的优点和缺点。新的数学工具将被开发和测试，看看它们是否能够深刻地描述人类在具有挑战性的条件下的表现。这项研究涉及来自美国、以色列和德国的科学家之间的多国合作，每个国家都有互补的专业知识。实验和理论工作之间的桥梁以及不同的首席研究员将有助于吸引女性进入传统上由男性主导的计算神经科学、机器人和控制工程领域。伙伴项目由德国联邦教育和研究部（BMBF）和美国-以色列两国科学基金会（BSF）资助。

There are many arenas where humans outperform machines. For example, when coordinated interaction with the physical environment is needed, humans (and animals) vastly out-perform modern robots. This occurs despite the biological systems having far slower 'hardware' and 'wetware' and much greater complexity than even the most modern robots. This research project seeks to understand the role of complexity in human sensory and motor performance. Human walking under challenging balance conditions will be studied and the use of canes to enhance stability will be included. The investigators emphasis on learning to balance in challenging environments should lead to new rehabilitation therapies (with or without robotic assistance) to aid recovery of balance and walking (e.g., after stroke). The researchers will create educational units suitable for online presentation to K-12 students and will devise exhibits based on their research for the Museum of Science in Boston.The central hypothesis to be tested in this project is that complex movements involving physical interaction with objects are organized as a hierarchy formed of modules or primitives. Experiments will study how unimpaired humans learn to walk on narrow beams. Beams of different roundness will vary the challenge. Hand-held canes will alter the available support (like training wheels on a child's bicycle). Computer simulations combined with machine learning will study the benefits and drawbacks of organization as a hierarchy. New mathematical tools will be developed and tested to see if they enable insightful description of human performance in challenging conditions. The research involves a multinational collaboration among scientists from the U.S., Israel, and Germany, each with complementary expertise. The bridge between experimental and theoretical work and the diverse Principal Investigators will help to attract women into the traditionally male-dominated fields of computational neuroscience, robotics and control engineering.Companion projects are being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF) and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF).