Motion capture and contemporary optimization algorithms for robust and stable motions on simulated biped robots

Biped soccer robots have shown drastic improvements in motion skills over the past few years. Still, a lot of work needs to be done with the RoboCup Federation's vision of 2050 in mind. One goal is creating a workflow for quickly generating reliable motions, preferably with inexpensive and accessible hardware. Our hypothesis is that using Microsoft's Kinect sensor in combination with a modern optimization algorithm can achieve this objective. We produced four complex and inherently unstable motions and then applied three contemporary optimization algorithms (CMA-ES, xNES, PSO) to make the motions robust; we performed 900 experiments with these motions on a 3D simulated Nao robot with full physics. In this paper we describe the motion mapping technique, compare the optimization algorithms, and discuss various basis functions and their impact on the learning performance. Our conclusion is that there is a straightforward process to achieve complex and stable motions in a short period of time.