Robot positioning of flexible-link manipulator using vision

Vision-aided flexible link robot positioning using the Camera Space Manipulation (CSM) method is developed. The primary motivation for this work is to use an autonomous vision-aided robotic system to pick-up and accurately move a flexible object that it encounters. The work consists of analytical and experimental investigation of the performance of CSM for a kinematic model of the PUMA manipulator with a flexible structure at the wrist which accounts for the gravitation. Trade-offs between camera view parameters and axial deflection model parameters were investigated. View parameter re-estimation and maneuvering resulted in a very accurate placement of the end-effector at the target.