Transferring elementary skills to robots by means of demonstrations is a very intuitive approach to robot programming. Within this article, an analysis of the process of skill transfer and skill acquisition is provided that explicitly considers the nature of elementary skills and the role of the human user, who acts as a teacher. A process model for skill acquisition is developed, and methods and algorithms supporting the several phases of this process are presented. The whole approach is exemplified by means of manipulation- and navigation-related skills. Finally, the strengths and limitations of the demonstration-based approach in general are discussed.
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