Guided Learning of Control Graphs for Physics-Based Characters

Transactions on Graphics (to be presented at SIGGRAPH 2016)

Libin Liu     Michiel van de Panne     KangKang Yin (*)
University of British Columbia       (*)National University of Singapore
 

     

Abstract

The difficulty of developing control strategies has been a primary bottleneck in the adoption of physics-based simulations of human motion. We present a method for learning robust feedback strategies around given motion capture clips as well as the transition paths between clips. The output is a control graph that supports real-time physics-based simulation of multiple characters, each capable of a diverse range of robust movement skills, such as walking, running, sharp turns, cartwheels, spin-kicks, and flips. The control fragments which comprise the control graph are developed using guided learning. This leverages the results of open-loop sampling-based reconstruction in order to produce state-action pairs which are then transformed into a linear feedback policy for each control fragment using linear regression. Our synthesis framework allows for the development of robust controllers with a minimal amount of prior knowledge.

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Bibtex
@article{2016-TOG-controlGraphs,
  title={Guided Learning of Control Graphs for Physics-Based Characters},
  author={Libin Liu and Michiel van de Panne and KangKang Yin},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics},
  volume = 35,
  number = 3,
  article = 29,
  year={2016}
}
Acknowledgements
This project is partially supported by NSERC Discovery Grants Program RGPIN-2015-04843 and Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund, Tier 2 (MOE2011-T2-2-152).