When humans perform a series of motions, they prepare for the next motion in advance so as to enhance the response time of their movements. This kind of preparation behaviour results in a natural and smooth transition of the overall movement. In this paper, we propose a new method to synthesize the behaviour using reinforcement learning. To create preparation movements, we propose a customized motion blending algorithm that is governed by a single numerical value, which we called the level of preparation. During the offline process, the system learns the optimal way to approach a target, as well as the realistic behaviour to prepare for interaction considering the level of preparation. At run-time, the trained controller indicates the character to move to a target with the appropriate level of preparation, resulting in human-like movements. We synthesized scenes in which the character has to move in a complex environment and interact with objects, such as a character crawling under and jumping over obstacles while walking. The method is useful not only for computer animation, but also for real-time applications such as computer games, in which the characters need to accomplish a series of tasks in a given environment.
Preparation Behaviour Synthesis with Reinforcement Learning by Mohamed Omar, Alamgir Hossain, Li Zhang and Hubert P. H. Shum in 2014
Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA)