USE OF AN ACTIVE CAMERA FOR EYE-HAND COORDINATION IN ROBOT MANIPULATION

This describes a new scheme for eye-hand cooperation in which an activ e camera is introduced to guide object manipulations via a robot. By i ntroducing an active camera controlled by the visual feedback approach , the observation conditions such as viewpoint, field of view, and res olution that cannot be maintained to satisfy a given task by using a c onventional fixed camera, can reach an ideal state that is pre-defined by the given tasks, Since the desired observation condition can be ch anged freely, it becomes possible to replace motion control in three-d imensional space by two-dimensional visual feedback control, and the r ealization of a flexible control system for robots that performs quali tative motions such as moving in the direction pointing to the goal, a lso becomes possible.