A Biomimetic Gaze Control to Restore Head-Neck Movements

What happened

arXiv:2610.04022v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Powered neck exoskeletons are developed to restore head-neck motions for those with neck muscle weakness. Current methods using hand-held input devices to control these robotic systems are unintuitive or non-viable for these populations.

Alternatively, the eyes coordinate with the head to accomplish many daily tasks. Therefore, movements of the eyes can be a useful signal to control the neck exoskeletons without needing to use the hands.

However, previous control models lack biobehavioral basis as well as means to personalize the control behavior, causing unnatural head-neck movements. This paper presents a novel eye-tracking controller design leveraging the vestibulo-ocular reflex to emulate natural eyehead coordination.