On with the Visuomotor Function: A 6DOF Adaptive Approach for Modeling Image-Based Variations and Visual Servoing

In this paper, we proposes a visual servoing method that approximates the relation between the variations of image points and the variations of a stereo rig in Euclidian space. As with most image-based visual servoing methods, commands are expressed in the space of image features. However, instead of relating instantaneous image-based variations to instantaneous variations in Euclidian space, the visuomotor function relates arbitrary image-based variations to Euclidian transformations. The visuomotor function is approximated in real-time by using online estimation techniques. The system improves its performance with experience and is able to adapt to different configurations of the cameras or environment. Given the disparities between two sets of corresponding image points, the visuomotor function provides the Euclidian transformation the robot must execute in order to align the image coordinates.