Sinusoidal input-based visual control for nonholonomic vehicles

This paper proposes a new visual control approach based on sinusoidal inputs to be used on a nonholonomic robot. We present several contributions: in our method, developed considering a unicycle kinematic model, sinusoids are used in such a way that the generated vehicle trajectories are feasible, smooth and versatile. Our technique improves previous sinusoidal-based control works in terms of efficiency and flexibility. As further contributions, we present the analytical expressions for the evolution of the robot’s state, and propose a new state-feedback control law based on these expressions. All the information used in the control scheme is obtained from omnidirectional vision by means of the 1D trifocal tensor. Stability analysis of the proposed approach is presented, and its performance is illustrated through experiments.