# Simple Kinematic Feedback Enhances Autonomous Learning in Bio-Inspired Tendon-Driven Systems

## TL;DR

Adding simple kinematic error feedback significantly accelerates and stabilizes autonomous learning in tendon-driven robots, enabling rapid skill acquisition even with sensory delays and contact collisions.

## Contribution

Demonstrates that simple kinematic feedback enhances autonomous learning speed and robustness in bio-inspired tendon-driven systems, with practical benefits in real-world conditions.

## Key findings

- Feedback improves performance in simulation and hardware.
- Learning accelerates with feedback even with sensory delays.
- System performs well after only 60 seconds of initial babbling.

## Abstract

Error feedback is known to improve performance by correcting control signals in response to perturbations. Here we show how adding simple error feedback can also accelerate and robustify autonomous learning in a tendon-driven robot. We implemented two versions of the General-to-Particular (G2P) autonomous learning algorithm to produce multiple movement tasks using a tendon-driven leg with two joints and three tendons: one with and one without kinematic feedback. As expected, feedback improved performance in simulation and hardware. However, we see these improvements even in the presence of sensory delays of up to 100 ms and when experiencing substantial contact collisions. Importantly, feedback accelerates learning and enhances G2P's continual refinement of the initial inverse map by providing the system with more relevant data to train on. This allows the system to perform well even after only 60 seconds of initial motor babbling.