A novel 4 DOF eye-camera positioning system for Androids

Abstract

We present a novel eye-camera positioning system with four degrees-of-freedom (DOF). The system has been designed to emulate human eye movements, including saccades, for anatomically accurate androids. The architecture of our system is similar to that of a universal joint in that a hollowed sphere (the eyeball), hosting a miniature CMOS color camera, takes the part of the cross shaft that connects a pair of hinges that are oriented at 90 degrees of each other. This concept allows the motors to remain static, enabling placing them in multiple configurations during the mechanical design stage facilitating the inclusion of other robotic parts into the robots head. Based on our evaluations, the robotic eye-camera has been shown to be suitable for perception experiments that require human-like eye motion.