Affine Contour-Based Visual Servoing

Small movements of a viewer relative to the surrounding scene induce deformations in the shape and detail of the projected image. This paper will consider the problem of using these deformations to provide visual feedback on the current position of the viewer relative to the scene. The implementation calculates the transformations that occur due to small movements around the current position. If a "target" transformation is specified, the equivalent motion can be interpolated. As a result, it is possible to position the viewer relying solely on visual feedback (see figure 1). All the calibrations required are performed within the algorithm, and the system is assumed to work using an uncalibrated camera. Figure 1: This figure depicts an example of the task to be performed by a visual servoing system. The camera in the first frame has detected the contour on the surface of the metal plate, and using visual cues, has "landed" on the surface in the second frame.