Factors that influence the direction and timing of changes in travel path during a multiple obstacle avoidance task.

在多重避障任务中影响行进路径变化的方向和时间的因素。

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05288
• 负责人: Cinelli, Michael
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Wilfrid Laurier University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=567071
• 关键词: Factors; influence; direction; timing; changes

Successful navigation requires both human and animals to maneouver through environments that are cluttered with objects that must be avoided. The behavioural variables used to control actions and safely navigate towards a goal are unknown. One challenge of developing a general theory of locomotion in cluttered environments is to determine how individuals coordinate and organize their actions. A starting step is to understand that the environment and the individual are in constant interaction and guided by episodic information. To demonstrate this, the Steering Dynamics Model was developed to show that locomotor paths emerge from simple navigation laws. The model assumed that goal-directed behaviours could be described by a few behavioural variables such that environmental goals served as attractors in which trajectories converged and obstacles served as repellors from which trajectories diverged. Over the past 10 years this model has been widely used to account for navigation in both humans and non-humans. Although this model offers a simple and elegant account of certain aspects of navigation, it has several significant limitations that are evident when one considers navigating in real-world situations. The model does not take into account individual’s physical size and size of the obstacles, action capabilities, or the manner in which locomotor speed and direction are coordinated. In order to address these limitations, a fundamentally different model, the Affordance-based Model, has recently been proposed. This new approach suggests that the individual takes into account his or her body dimensions and locomotor capabilities when choosing actions and guiding locomotion. The major limitation of this model is that it requires that an individual has learnt and has knowledge of his or her body dimensions and locomotor capabilities. These two models represent different theoretical ideas to explain the behavioural variables used to guide locomotion. Understanding the effects of intrinsic properties of an individual or environmental layout on path selection has long gone unanswered and this proposal will shed light on all of the previous research in the field. The long-term goal of my basic research program is to determine which of the two models best explains the behavioural variables used to safely guide locomotion in real-world situations. In order to meet this objective, a series of studies that manipulate either properties of the individual or those of the environment will be conducted over the next five years. These studies will involve real-world settings in which participants will walk along a path toward a goal and avoiding colliding with physical obstacles. The obstacles will create a gap between 35 and 80cm wide on any given trial as well as create two other possible pathways between each obstacle and the wall on either side of the gap. Data collected will include: 1) perceptual judgments about path selection; 2) gaze behaviours to reflect where perceptual information is being gather; and 3) kinematics to reflect path selections. This work will determine which of the two models best explains the behavioural variables used to safely guide locomotion in real-world situations. The motivation behind this proposal is to extend such models to real world situations where perception and action must coordinate with the environment. This will ultimately lead to understanding the behavioural variables that control locomotion in cluttered environments, which can be used to develop robots to safely navigate unfamiliar environments or properly plan exit routes in buildings.

成功的导航需要人类和动物在杂乱的环境中穿行，而这些物体是必须避免的。用来控制行动和安全地朝着目标导航的行为变量是未知的。在杂乱的环境中发展运动的一般理论的一个挑战是确定个体如何协调和组织他们的行动。第一步是理解环境和个人处于不断的互动中，并由时断时续的信息引导。为了证明这一点，开发了转向动力学模型，以表明运动路径来自简单的导航规律。该模型假设以目标为导向的行为可以通过几个行为变量来描述，比如环境目标充当轨迹汇聚的吸引器，而障碍充当轨迹偏离的排斥器。在过去的10年里，这个模型被广泛用于解释人类和非人类的导航。虽然这个模型简单而优雅地描述了导航的某些方面，但它有几个明显的限制，当人们考虑在现实世界中导航时，这些限制是显而易见的。该模型没有考虑个体的身体大小和障碍物的大小、行动能力，或者运动速度和方向协调的方式。为了解决这些局限性，最近提出了一种完全不同的模式--基于非洲之舞的模式。这一新方法表明，个体在选择动作和指导运动时，会考虑他或她的身体尺寸和运动能力。这种模式的主要局限性是，它要求一个人已经学习并了解他或她的身体尺寸和运动能力。这两个模型代表了不同的理论观点来解释用于指导运动的行为变量。了解个体或环境布局的内在属性对路径选择的影响长期以来一直没有答案，这一建议将有助于阐明该领域以前的所有研究。我的基础研究计划的长期目标是确定这两个模型中的哪一个最能解释在现实世界中用于安全指导运动的行为变量。为了实现这一目标，将在未来五年内进行一系列研究，以操纵个人或环境的属性。这些研究将涉及真实世界的环境，参与者将沿着一条通往目标的道路行走，并避免与物理障碍相撞。这些障碍物将在任何给定的试验中创建35到80厘米宽的缺口，并在每个障碍和缺口两侧的墙之间创建另外两条可能的路径。收集的数据将包括：1)关于路径选择的感知判断；2)凝视行为以反映在哪里收集感知信息；以及3)运动学以反映路径选择。这项工作将确定两个模型中的哪一个最好地解释了在现实世界中用于安全指导运动的行为变量。这一提议背后的动机是将这种模型扩展到真实世界的情况，在这种情况下，感知和行动必须与环境相协调。这最终将导致理解控制杂乱环境中移动的行为变量，这些变量可用于开发机器人，使其安全地在陌生环境中导航，或适当地规划建筑物中的出口路线。