Eye motion generation in a mobile service robot ‘SILBOT II’

Face of a robot capable of facial expression has a complex structure inside consisting of many actuators, sensors, and other parts. Specially, eyes and its neighbor elements such as upper/lower eyelids, cameras and eyelids, are very densely arranged. In this paper, a compact eyeball module is suggested which is driven with Teflon tube enveloped metal wires, so that one directional motion can be made with one wire pushed or pulled by a motor. And the cylindrical and ball-type pivot parts are used in ends of the tubes and wires, so as to permit their rotation during eye movement. The performance of the suggested module is verified through the comparison between experimental and analytical results. The results are well matched with each other and the degree of positioning precision is also good.