Automated Curriculum Design for High-Dimensional Human Motor Learning

Designing effective practice schedules for high-dimensional motor learning tasks remains a challenge, especially when skill states are unobservable and task performance may not reflect the true learning. We propose an automated curriculum design framework that combines a human motor learning model and personalized real-time skill estimation with Stochastic Nonlinear Model Predictive Control in de-Novo (novel) motor learning paradigms. We validated our framework both through simulations and human-subject studies (N = 36) using a hand exoskeleton. Our proposed approach accelerates skill acquisition by ~ 23% and ~ 17% when compared to a random curriculum and a performance heuristics-based curriculum, respectively. These significant gains in learning efficiency highlight the potential of model-based, individualized curricula for motor rehabilitation and complex skill training.