Gaze anticipation during human locomotion - top-down organization that may invert the concept of locomotion in humanoid robots

Abstract

Recent litterature suggested a top-down organization of locomotion, with the head being the stable frame of reference and the gaze anticipating the future direction. The present paper provides detailed investigation into the spatial and temporal relationship among the gaze and each body segment during locomotion on a complex trajectory without visual cues or guidance. We established that gaze direction anticipates on head which anticipates on other body segments, and showed that mean and variance of anticipations are very dependent on curvature changes on the trajectory. This idea of top down organization of locomotion may challenge the concept of control of locomotion in humanoid robotics, since it has so far largely depended on ZMP which is related to the force acting between the foot and the ground.