Predictive gaze stabilization during periodic locomotion based on Adaptive Frequency Oscillators

In this paper we present an approach to the problem of stabilizating the gaze of legged robots using Adaptive Frequency Oscillators to learn the frequency, phase and amplitude of the optical flow and generate compensatory commands during robot locomotion. Assuming periodic and nearly sine shaped motion of the head of the robot, the system successfully stabilizes the gaze of the robot, whether the robot itself is moving, or an external object is moving relative to the robot. We present experiments in simulation and, for object tracking, with a real robotics setup, the Hoap 3, showing that the system can be successfully applied to gaze stabilization during locomotion, even when the feedback loop is very slow and noisy.