skip to main content
research-article

Learning bicycle stunts

Published: 27 July 2014 Publication History

Abstract

We present a general approach for simulating and controlling a human character that is riding a bicycle. The two main components of our system are offline learning and online simulation. We simulate the bicycle and the rider as an articulated rigid body system. The rider is controlled by a policy that is optimized through offline learning. We apply policy search to learn the optimal policies, which are parameterized with splines or neural networks for different bicycle maneuvers. We use Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topology (NEAT) to optimize both the parametrization and the parameters of our policies. The learned controllers are robust enough to withstand large perturbations and allow interactive user control. The rider not only learns to steer and to balance in normal riding situations, but also learns to perform a wide variety of stunts, including wheelie, endo, bunny hop, front wheel pivot and back hop.

Supplementary Material

ZIP File (a50-tan.zip)
Supplemental material.
MP4 File (a50-sidebyside.mp4)

References

[1]
Allen, B., and Faloutsos, P. 2009. Evolved controllers for simulated locomotion. In Motion in Games, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 219--230.
[2]
Andrews, S., and Kry, P. 2013. Goal directed multi-finger manipulation: Control policies and analysis. Computers & Graphics 37, 7, 830--839.
[3]
Auslander, J., Fukunaga, A., Partovi, H., Christensen, J., Hsu, L., Reiss, P., Shuman, A., Marks, J., and Ngo, J. T. 1995. Further experience with controller-based automatic motion synthesis for articulated figures. ACM Trans. Graph. 14, 4 (Oct.), 311--336.
[4]
BBC. 2005. Bicycle chosen as best invention. BBC News.
[5]
Boyan, J. A., and Moore, A. W. 1995. Generalization in reinforcement learning: Safely approximating the value function. In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 7, MIT Press, 369--376.
[6]
Carvallo, M. E. 1900. Théorie du mouvement du monocycle et de la bicyclette. Journal de L'Ecole Polytechnique 5.
[7]
Chambaron, S., Berberian, B., Delbecque, L., Ginhac, D., and Cleeremans, A. 2009. Implicit motor learning in discrete and continuous tasks: Toward a possible account of discrepant results. Handbook of Motor Skills: Development, Impairment, and Therapy, 139--155.
[8]
Collins, R. N. 1963. A mathematical analysis of the stability of two-wheeled vehicles. PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin.
[9]
Coros, S., Beaudoin, P., and van de Panne, M. 2009. Robust task-based control policies for physics-based characters. ACM Trans. Graph. 28, 5 (Dec.), 170:1--170:9.
[10]
Coros, S., Beaudoin, P., and van de Panne, M. 2010. Generalized biped walking control. ACM Transctions on Graphics 29, 4, Article 130.
[11]
Coros, S., Karpathy, A., Jones, B., Reveret, L., and van de Panne, M. 2011. Locomotion skills for simulated quadrupeds. ACM Transactions on Graphics 30, 4.
[12]
da Silva, M., Abe, Y., and Popović, J. 2008. Interactive simulation of stylized human locomotion. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2008 Papers, ACM, New York, NY, USA, SIGGRAPH '08, 82:1--82:10.
[13]
de Lasa, M., and Hertzmann, A. 2009. Prioritized optimization for task-space control. In International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
[14]
Geijtenbeek, T., and Pronost, N. 2012. Interactive Character Animation Using Simulated Physics: A State-of-the-Art Review. Computer Graphics Forum 31, 8, 2492--2515.
[15]
Geijtenbeek, T., van de Panne, M., and van der Stappen, A. F. 2013. Flexible muscle-based locomotion for bipedal creatures. ACM Transactions on Graphics 32, 6.
[16]
Grzeszczuk, R., and Terzopoulos, D. 1995. Automated learning of muscle-actuated locomotion through control abstraction. In Proceedings of the 22nd annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, 63--70.
[17]
Hansen, N. 2009. The CMA Evolution Strategy: A Tutorial.
[18]
Heidrich-Meisner, V., and Igel, C. 2008. Evolution strategies for direct policy search. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature: PPSN X, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 428--437.
[19]
Hinton, G. E. 2007. Learning multiple layers of representation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11, 428--434.
[20]
Hodgins, J. K., Sweeney, P. K., and Lawrence, D. G. 1992. Generating natural-looking motion for computer animation. In Proceedings of the Conference on Graphics Interface '92, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA, 265--272.
[21]
Hodgins, J. K., Wooten, W. L., Brogan, D. C., and O'Brien, J. F. 1995. Animating human athletics. In SIGGRAPH, 71--78.
[22]
Jones, D. E. H. 1970. The Stability of the bicycle. Physics Today 23, 34--40.
[23]
Klein, F., and Sommerfeld, A. 1910. Stabilität des fahrrads. Über die Theorie des Kreisels, Ch. IX, Section 8, 863--884.
[24]
Kooijman, J. D. G., Meijaard, J. P., Papadopoulos, J. M., Ruina, A., and Schwab, A. L. 2011. A Bicycle Can Be Self-Stable Without Gyroscopic or Caster Effects. Science 332, 6027 (Apr.), 339--342.
[25]
Kwon, T., and Hodgins, J. 2010. Control systems for human running using an inverted pendulum model and a reference motion capture sequence. In Proceedings of the 2010 ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation, Eurographics Association, Aire-la-Ville, Switzerland, SCA '10, 129--138.
[26]
Laszlo, J., van de Panne, M., and Fiume, E. 1996. Limit cycle control and its application to the animation of balancing and walking. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, ACM, New York, NY, USA, SIGGRAPH '96, 155--162.
[27]
Levine, S., and Koltun, V. 2013. Guided policy search. In ICML '13: Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Machine Learning.
[28]
Levine, S., Wang, J. M., Haraux, A., Popović, Z., and Koltun, V. 2012. Continuous character control with low-dimensional embeddings. ACM Trans. Graph. 31, 4 (July), 28:1--28:10.
[29]
Meijaard, J. P., Papadopoulos, J. M., Ruina, A., and Schwab, A. L. 2007. Linearized dynamics euqations for the balance and steer of a bicycle: a benchmark and review. Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
[30]
Mordatch, I., de Lasa, M., and Hertzmann, A. 2010. Robust Physics-Based Locomotion Using Low-Dimensional Planning. ACM Transactions on Graphics 29, 3.
[31]
Muico, U., Lee, Y., Popović, J., and Popović, Z. 2009. Contact-aware nonlinear control of dynamic characters. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2009 Papers, ACM, New York, NY, USA, SIGGRAPH '09, 81:1--81:9.
[32]
Ng, A. Y., and Jordan, M. 2000. Pegasus: A policy search method for large MDPs and POMDPs. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA, UAI'00, 406--415.
[33]
Ng, A. Y., and Russell, S. J. 2000. Algorithms for inverse reinforcement learning. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Machine Learning, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA, ICML '00, 663--670.
[34]
Ngo, J. T., and Marks, J. 1993. Spacetime constraints revisited. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, ACM, New York, NY, USA, SIGGRAPH '93, 343--350.
[35]
Peters, J., and Schaal, S. 2008. Reinforcement learning of motor skills with policy gradients. Neural Networks 21, 4 (May), 682--697.
[36]
Pratt, J. E., Chew, C.-M., Torres, A., Dilworth, P., and Pratt, G. A. 2001. Virtual model control: An intuitive approach for bipedal locomotion. Int'l J. Robotic Research. 20, 2, 129--143.
[37]
Randløv, J., and Alstrøm, P. 1998. Learning to drive a bicycle using reinforcement learning and shaping. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 1998), Morgan Kauffman, San Francisco, CA, USA, J. W. Shavlik, Ed., 463--471.
[38]
Rankine, W. J. M. 1870. On the dynamical principles of the motion of velocipedes. The Engineer.
[39]
Sims, K. 1994. Evolving virtual creatures. In Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, ACM, New York, NY, USA, SIGGRAPH '94, 15--22.
[40]
Singh, D. V. 1964. Advanced concepts of the stability of two-wheeled vehicle-application of mathematical analysis to actual vehicles. PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin.
[41]
Smith, R., 2008. Open dynamics engine. http://www.ode.org/.
[42]
Stanley, K. O., and Miikkulainen, R. 2002. Evolving neural networks through augmenting topologies. Evol. Comput. 10, 2 (June), 99--127.
[43]
Sutton, R. S., and Barto, A. G. 1998. Introduction to Reinforcement Learning, 1st ed. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA.
[44]
Tan, J., Gu, Y., Turk, G., and Liu, C. K. 2011. Articulated swimming creatures. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2011 papers, ACM, SIGGRAPH '11, 58:1--58:12.
[45]
Tan, J., Turk, G., and Liu, C. K. 2012. Soft body locomotion. ACM Trans. Graph. 31, 4 (July), 26:1--26:11.
[46]
Thrun, S., and Schwartz, A. 1993. Issues in using function approximation for reinforcement learning. In In Proceedings of the Fourth Connectionist Models Summer School, Erlbaum.
[47]
Treuille, A., Lee, Y., and Popović, Z. 2007. Near-optimal character animation with continuous control. ACM Trans. Graph. 26, 3 (July).
[48]
Tsai, Y.-Y., Lin, W.-C., Cheng, K. B., Lee, J., and Lee, T.-Y. 2010. Real-time physics-based 3D biped character animation using an inverted pendulum model. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 16, 2 (Mar.), 325--337.
[49]
van de Panne, M., and Fiume, E. 1993. Sensor-actuator networks. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, ACM, New York, NY, USA, SIGGRAPH '93, 335--342.
[50]
van de Panne, M., and Lee, C. 2003. Ski stunt simulator: Experiments with interactive dynamics. In Proceedings of the 14th Western Computer Graphics Symposium.
[51]
Van Zytveld, P. 1975. A Method for the Automatic Stabilization of an Unmanned Bicycle. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University.
[52]
Wang, J. M., Fleet, D. J., and Hertzmann, A. 2009. Optimizing walking controllers. ACM Trans. Graph. 28, 5 (Dec.), 168:1--168:8.
[53]
Wang, J. M., Fleet, D. J., and Hertzmann, A. 2010. Optimizing walking controllers for uncertain inputs and environments. ACM Trans. Graph. 29, 4 (July), 73:1--73:8.
[54]
Wang, J. M., Hamner, S. R., Delp, S. L., and Koltun, V. 2012. Optimizing locomotion controllers using biologically-based actuators and objectives. ACM Trans. Graph. 31, 4 (July), 25:1--25:11.
[55]
Whipple, F. J. W. 1899. The stability of the motion of a bicycle. Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics 30, 312--348.
[56]
Wu, J.-c., and Popović, Z. 2003. Realistic modeling of bird flight animations. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2003 Papers, ACM, New York, NY, USA, SIGGRAPH '03, 888--895.
[57]
Ye, Y., and Liu, C. K. 2010. Optimal feedback control for character animation using an abstract model. In SIGGRAPH '10: ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 papers, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1--9.
[58]
Yin, K., Loken, K., and van de Panne, M. 2007. SIMBICON: simple biped locomotion control. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 papers, SIGGRAPH '07.
[59]
Yin, K., Coros, S., Beaudoin, P., and van de Panne, M. 2008. Continuation methods for adapting simulated skills. ACM Trans. Graph. 27, 3.
[60]
Zhao, P., and van de Panne, M. 2005. User interfaces for interactive control of physics-based 3D characters. In Proceedings of the 2005 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games, ACM, New York, NY, USA, I3D '05, 87--94.

Cited By

View all
  • (2025)Investigating the psychometrics of a new tool for evaluating motivational factors and their relationship with stunts among adolescent male cyclists in Isfahan, IranTransportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour10.1016/j.trf.2024.11.014108(73-88)Online publication date: Jan-2025
  • (2024)SuperPADL: Scaling Language-Directed Physics-Based Control with Progressive Supervised DistillationACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Papers10.1145/3641519.3657492(1-11)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Interacting with a Fully Simulated Self-Balancing Bipedal Character in Augmented and Virtual RealityEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_220(970-977)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics
ACM Transactions on Graphics  Volume 33, Issue 4
July 2014
1366 pages
ISSN:0730-0301
EISSN:1557-7368
DOI:10.1145/2601097
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 27 July 2014
Published in TOG Volume 33, Issue 4

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. balance control
  2. bicycle simulation
  3. neural networks
  4. reinforcement learning

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Funding Sources

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)79
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)12
Reflects downloads up to 05 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2025)Investigating the psychometrics of a new tool for evaluating motivational factors and their relationship with stunts among adolescent male cyclists in Isfahan, IranTransportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour10.1016/j.trf.2024.11.014108(73-88)Online publication date: Jan-2025
  • (2024)SuperPADL: Scaling Language-Directed Physics-Based Control with Progressive Supervised DistillationACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Papers10.1145/3641519.3657492(1-11)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Interacting with a Fully Simulated Self-Balancing Bipedal Character in Augmented and Virtual RealityEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_220(970-977)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
  • (2023)Neural Categorical Priors for Physics-Based Character ControlACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/361839742:6(1-16)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2023
  • (2023)A Deep Learning Framework for Character Motion Synthesis and EditingSeminal Graphics Papers: Pushing the Boundaries, Volume 210.1145/3596711.3596789(733-743)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2023
  • (2023)Learning Physically Simulated Tennis Skills from Broadcast VideosACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/359240842:4(1-14)Online publication date: 26-Jul-2023
  • (2023)Learning to manipulate a whip with simple primitive actions – A simulation studyiScience10.1016/j.isci.2023.10739526:8(107395)Online publication date: Aug-2023
  • (2022)PADL: Language-Directed Physics-Based Character ControlSIGGRAPH Asia 2022 Conference Papers10.1145/3550469.3555391(1-9)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
  • (2022)ControlVAEACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/3550454.355543441:6(1-16)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2022
  • (2022)Learning Soccer Juggling Skills with Layer-wise Mixture-of-ExpertsACM SIGGRAPH 2022 Conference Proceedings10.1145/3528233.3530735(1-9)Online publication date: 27-Jul-2022
  • Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Full Access

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media