Drive system of the robot eyeballs and eyelids with 8 DOFs

Abstract

© 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature. Significant aspect of the socially interactive robots are eyes which present the most expressive part of the face, especially when it is rigid as is the case with majority of the robots. For this reason to the design and realization of the eyes a particular attention should be dedicated. This paper presents the drive system of the robot eyeballs and eyelids with 8 DOFs. Eyeballs drive system has 4 DOFs and consists of two symmetrical planar mechanisms that enable independent motion of the eyeballs about the yaw axis—abduction/adduction movements and two identical spatial mechanisms that enable independent motion of the eyeballs about the pitch axis—elevation/depression movements. Eyelids drive system has 4 DOFs and consists of four structurally equal spatial mechanisms that enable independent motion of each eyelid—mechanisms for driving the upper and lower eyelids, respectively, are symmetrical. Based on the kinematic analysis, motion simulation of eyeball and upper/lower eyelid is performed. Velocities of the eyeball/eyelids movements are within the parameters of the human eye. The structure of the eyeballs drive system is such that enables inserting the camera directly into the eyeballs. In this way it is possible to achieve some of the functions of robots artificial vision such as recognizing objects, distance estimation etc.