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Learning from Demonstration (LfD) is a popular approach to endowing robots with skills without having to program them by hand. Typically, LfD relies on human demonstrations in clutter-free environments. This prevents the demonstrations from being affected by irrelevant objects, whose influence can obfuscate the true intention of the human or the constraints of the desired skill. However, it is unrealistic to assume that the robot's environment can always be restructured to remove clutter when capturing human demonstrations. To contend with this problem, we develop an importance weighted batch and incremental skill learning approach, building on a recent inference-based technique for skill representation and reproduction. Our approach reduces unwanted environmental influences on the learned skill, while still capturing the salient human behavior. We provide both batch and incremental versions of our approach and validate our algorithms on a 7-DOF JACO2 manipulator with reaching and placing skills. 

In this paper, we present Combined Learning from demonstration And Motion Planning (CLAMP) as an efficient approach to skill learning and generalizable skill reproduction. CLAMP combines the strengths of Learning from Demonstration (LfD) and motion planning into a unifying framework. We carry out probabilistic inference to find trajectories which are optimal with respect to a given skill and also feasible in different scenarios. We use factor graph optimization to speed up inference. To encode optimality, we provide a new probabilistic skill model based on a stochastic dynamical system. This skill model requires minimal parameter tuning to learn, is suitable to encode skill constraints, and allows efficient inference. Preliminary experimental results showing skill generalization over initial robot state and unforeseen obstacles are presented.