Active eye-head control

This paper deals with the problem of the vision-based feedback control of an eye-head system. Movements of the visual sensors are controlled in order to gather optimal measurements, in relation to the kinematic structure of the system and the task that is currently being executed. In more explicit biological terms, it is the problem of, given a particular sensor, how to use movement to ameliorate perception. In particular it is proved that movements can essentially be guided by the achievement of the minimum cost function related with the sensitivity of the transformation from world to camera coordinates. This allows one to define proper control objectives, for the coordinated eye-head movements; it also formally motivates some relevant aspects of the biological vision like fixation, vergence and eye-head compensation.<>