Exploiting the Distance Information of the Interaural Level Difference for Binaural Robot Motion Control

This letter proposes a control framework allowing to position a robot in range and orientation with respect to a sound source from a binaural system. To this end, a sensor-based control framework is developed upon interaural level difference (ILD) cues. ILD is known to be implicitly related to the sound source azimuth, but also to the sound source distance. We emphasize the latter property by introducing the concept of ILD annulus. Then, a sensor-based task is designed in order to approach a sound source. This method is validated in simulation and in real world experiments performed on a humanoid robot.