Design and control of a camera platform for machine vision

In machine vision applications controllable vision sensors improve essentially the performance of the system. The design and realization of a camera platform is presented in this paper. Two modes of operation are important, fast gaze shifts to bring regions of interest into the field of view and smooth pursuit of a moving target. In addition, image stabilisation is needed for application of the camera platform in a vehicle. Using visual feedback in the control loop requires careful consideration of all effects like time and speed restrictions for real time control, image processing delays, interfacing the controller to image processing, smoothing the camera motion and rejection of disturbances. These control aspects are addressed in this paper