Active vision for sociable robots

In 1991, Ballard described the implications of having a visual system that could actively position the camera coordinates in response to physical stim uli. In humanoid robotic systems, or in any animate vision system that inte racts with people, social dynamics provide additional levels of constraint and provide additional opportunities for processing economy. In this paper, we describe an integrated visual-motor system that has been implemented on a humanoid robot to negotiate the robot's physical constraints, the percep tual needs of the robot's behavioral and motivational systems, and the soci al implications of motor acts.