TCOptRob Seminar: MJPC: Asynchronous UI for Real-Time Behavior Synthesis by Yuval Tassa

TCOptRob Seminar: MJPC: Asynchronous UI for Real-Time Behavior Synthesis by Yuval Tassa of Google DeepMind (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/yuval-tassa-0ba2924a). 00:00 Intro 01:27 The Talk 36:25 Demo 38:25 Q&A Abstract: Model-free, learning-based methods are simple and powerful but inherently slow. Model-based predictive control methods can synthesize behavior in real time, but are considered difficult to understand, implement and use. In this talk I will present MuJoCo MPC (MJPC), a fully open-source interactive application and software framework for predictive control that lets the user easily author and solve complex robotics tasks. MJPC is a rich GUI application, giving the user real-time visual feedback and allowing them to develop intuitions about the underlying algorithm. Importantly, the interactive simulation can be slowed-down asynchronously—effectively speeding up the controller—leading to a democratization of predictive control tooling. In closing, I will discuss various ways in which model-based and model-free methods can be combined, exploiting the strengths of both approaches. The talk will include a live demo of multiple locomotion and manipulation tasks solved from scratch, in real-time, on a laptop. -------------------------------------------------------------- The IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Model Based Optimization for Robotics is focused on building and supporting a community of researchers and practioners focused on the development and application of model-based optimization techniques for the generation and control of dynamic behaviors in robotics and their practical implementation. You can find our more about the TC at: https://www.tcoptrob.org/ Copyright (c) 2023 TCOptRob. All rights reserved. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0