A Fixed-Camera Controller for Visual Guidance of Mobile Robots via Velocity Fields

Navigation of mobile robot in the configuration space requires the robot pose measurement for control algorithms implementation. Calibrated fixed cameras may be utilized to such measurements. A promising approach where calibration can be avoided is navigation in the image space. This leads to the concept of direct image based control where absolute measurement of the robot pose in the configuration space is obviated; only information extracted from visual information — and partial camera calibration— is utilized for guidance of the robot. This paper adopt this concept and the application of the velocity field control philosophy to visual guidance of wheeled mobile robots. The main feature of this approach is that the robot task is encoded by means of a specified velocity field in image space.