Advancing Active Vision Systems by Improved Design and Control

This paper presents the mechanical hardware and control software of a novel high-performance active vision system. It is the latest in an ongoing research effort to develop real-world vision systems based on cable-drive transmissions. The head presented in this paper is the laboratory’s first fully cable-driven binocular rig, and builds on several successful aspects of previous monocular prototypes. Namely, an increased payload capacity, a more compact transmission, and a design optimised for rigidity. In addition, we have developed a simple and compact controller for real-time tracking applications. It consists of two behavioural subgroups, saccade and smooth pursuit. By using a single trapezoidal profile motion (TPM) algorithm, we show that saccade time and motion smoothness can be optimised.