Eyes-Neck Coordination Using Chaos

摘要

The increasing complexity of humanoid robots and their expected performance in real dynamic environments demand an equally complex, autonomous and dynamic solution. Our approach for the creation of real autonomy in artificial systems is based on the use of nonlinear dynamical systems. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the feasibility of using coupled chaotic systems within the area of cognitive developmental robotics. Using a robotic head, we demonstrate that the visual input coming into the head’s eyes is enough for the self-organization of the axes controlling the motion of eyes and neck. No specific coding of the task is needed, which results in a very fast adaptation and robustness to perturbations. Another equally important goal of this research is the possibility of having new insights about how the coordination of multiple degrees of freedom emerges in human infants. We show that the interaction between body and environment modifies the inner connections of the controlling network resulting in the emergence of a tracking behavior.