Development of an anthropomorphic head-eye system for robot and human communication

Abstract

On the Humanoid Project, at the Waseda University, we are developing a 'campus information assistant Hadaly', which provides campus information services. This paper describes the anthropomorphic head-eye system which has an eye and head mechanism that comprises a subsystem of the campus information assistant Hadaly. The head-eye system consists of an eyeball mechanism and a head. Since the camera drive mechanism needs light-weight and immune to backlashes, the eyeball part uses a tendon-driven gimbal mechanism. Experiments were performed for the system to look at the target on the side, placed in the visual field of the CCD camera, and also to pursue a moving target within the visual field of the CCD camera. After performing the above experiments, we confirm that coordinated motions of the eye and head system are possible with both motion and velocity equivalent to those of human.