A biologically inspired controller for fast eye movements

We describe and test a non-linear control algorithm inspired by the behavior of motor neurons in humans and other animals during extremely fast saccadic eye movements. The algorithm is implemented on a robotic eye, which includes a stiff camera cable, similar to the optic nerve, which adds a complicated non-linear stiffness to the plant. For high speed movement, our "pulse-step" controller operates open-loop using an internal model of the eye plant learned from past measurements. We show that the controller approaches the performance seen in the human eye, producing fast movements with little overshoot. Interestingly, the controller reproduces the main sequence relationship observed in animal eye movements.