Skill Learning
skill learning
Edwin Robertson
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Researcher to make a leading contribution to a project on “Modulating sleep with learning to enhance learning”, joining the laboratory of Professor Edwin M. Robertson within the Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology. This group examines the architecture of human memory. We integrate together a variety of cutting edge techniques including behavioural analysis, functional imaging and brain stimulation. Together, these are used to provide a picture of how the content and structure of a memory determines its fate (retained or enhanced) across different brain states (sleep vs. wakefulness). Currently, there is an opening in our group funded by the Leverhulme Trust (UK). It would suit a bright, enthusiastic, aspiring researcher willing to think carefully, creatively, critically and collaboratively (with the Principal Investigator) about their work in this project on human neuroscience. The group provides a superb training environment, with many using it as a foundation to secure independent fellowships, and faculty positions. The laboratory is housed within the Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology (INP), which is home to several Wellcome Trust Investigators, and national academy members (Royal Society, Edinburgh).
Why would we need Cognitive Science to develop better Collaborative Robots and AI Systems?
While classical industrial robots are mostly designed for repetitive tasks, assistive robots will be challenged by a variety of different tasks in close contact with humans. Hereby, learning through the direct interaction with humans provides a potentially powerful tool for an assistive robot to acquire new skills and to incorporate prior human knowledge during the exploration of novel tasks. Moreover, an intuitive interactive teaching process may allow non-programming experts to contribute to robotic skill learning and may help to increase acceptance of robotic systems in shared workspaces and everyday life. In this talk, I will discuss recent research I did on interactive robot skill learning and the remaining challenges on the route to human-centered teaching of assistive robots. In particular, I will also discuss potential connections and overlap with cognitive science. The presented work covers learning a library of probabilistic movement primitives from human demonstrations, intention aware adaptation of learned skills in shared workspaces, and multi-channel interactive reinforcement learning for sequential tasks.
Tracking human skill learning with a hierarchical Bayesian sequence model
COSYNE 2022
Tracking human skill learning with a hierarchical Bayesian sequence model
COSYNE 2022
Musculoskeletal skill learning with curriculum-based Static to Dynamic Stabilization
COSYNE 2023
Mapping information flow between striatum and motor cortex during skill learning
FENS Forum 2024
Dendritic mitochondrial transport in mature neurons is important for motor skill learning
FENS Forum 2024
Planning horizon in motor cortex during skill learning in macaque monkeys
FENS Forum 2024