DEFT: Dexterous Fine-Tuning for Hand Policies

Aditya Kannan, Kenneth Shaw, Shikhar Bahl, Pragna Mannam, Deepak Pathak

Keywords: Dexterous Manipulation, Real World Adaptation, Continual Learning

TL;DR: We use internet videos and real-world continual learning to learn robotic policies for a soft hand.

Abstract: Dexterity is often seen as a cornerstone of complex manipulation. Humans are able to perform a host of skills with their hands, from making food to operating tools. In this paper, we investigate these challenges, especially in the case of soft, deformable objects as well as complex, relatively long-horizon tasks. However, learning such behaviors from scratch can be data inefficient. To circumvent this, we propose a novel approach, DEFT: Dexterous Fine-Tuning for Hand Policies, that leverages human-driven priors, which are executed directly in the real world. In order to improve upon these priors, DEFT involves an efficient online optimization procedure. With the integration of human-based learning and online fine-tuning, coupled with a soft robotic hand, DEFT demonstrates success across various tasks, establishing a robust, data-efficient pathway toward general dexterous manipulation. Please see our website at https://dexterousfinetuning.github.io for video results.

Submission Number: 1