Development of a high speed vision system for mobile robots

In order to achieve human-like quick eye movements and image processing for intelligent mobile robots, a high speed vision system is developed. The vision system is composed of a binocular camera head and high speed image sensors. The camera head is originally designed to mount neuromorphic vision chips fabricated using three-dimensional integration technology. The prototype of the neuromorphic vision chip has three layers: (1) photoreceptor layer, (2) horizontal and bipolar cell layer, and (3) ganglion cell layer. An image sensor is separately developed, which corresponds to the photoreceptor layer of the layered vision chip. The image sensors are tentatively mounted on the camera head, since the resolution of the prototype of the layered vision chip is not sufficient at this stage. The camera head has an azimuth DOF for each eye and a common elevation DOF. The weight of the camera head is strictly limited, since it is mounted on a mobile robot. In order to satisfy both demands for the quick movements and light weight, the camera head is designed based upon a simple parallel mechanism. The total performance of the vision system is examined in this work. Saccadic eye movement and frequency response are experimentally reviewed.