Visuo-inertial stabilization in space-variant binocular systems

Stabilization of gaze is a major functional prerequisite for robots exploring the environment. The main reason for a "steady-image" requirement is to prevent the robot's own motion to compromise its "visual functions". In this paper we present an artificial system, the LIRA robot head, capable of controlling its cameras/eyes to stabilize gaze. The system features a stabilization mechanism relying on principles exploited by natural systems: an inertial sensory apparatus and images of space-variant resolution. The inertial device measures angular velocities and linear acceleration along the vertical and horizontal fronto-parallel axes. The space-variant image geometry facilitates real-time computation of optic flow and the extraction of first-order motion parameters. Experiments which describe the performance of the LIRA robot head are presented. The results show that the stabilization mechanism improves the reactivity of the system to changes occurring suddenly at new spotted locations. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.