Development of an anthropomorphic head-eye robot with two eyes-coordinated head-eye motion and pursuing motion in the depth direction

Abstract

In this study the authors are developing anthropomorphic head-eye robots, in order to elucidate the human vision system from an engineering point of view, and to develop a new communication system with humans. We have developed an anthropomorphic head-eye robot with 2-DOF eyes and a 4-DOF head rotation mechanism, WE-3 (Waseda Eye No.3), that comprises a subsystem of an anthropomorphic robot 'Hadaly-2' which we are developing in 'Humanoid Project' at Waseda University. Since the camera drive mechanism need light-weight and immune to backlashes, the eyeball part uses a tendon-driven gimbal mechanism. The neck part except yaw axis is also driven by tendon-driven mechanism. In this experiment, the target is a electric light bulb. The head-eye robot, WE-3 has realized coordinated head-eye motion with VOR (vestibulo-ocular reflex) of human, and pursuing motion in the depth direction using the angle of convergence, with the same speed as humans.