Application of Visual Servo Control in Autonomous Mobile Rescue Robots

Abstract: Mobile robots that integrate visual servo control for facilitating autonomous grasping and manipulation are the focus of this paper. In view of mobility, they have wider application than traditional fixed-based robots with visual servoing. Visual servoing is widely used in mobile robot navigation. However, there are not so many report for applying it to mobile manipulation. In this paper, challenges and limitations of applying visual servoing in mobile manipulation are discussed. Next, two classical approaches (image-based visual servoing (IBVS) and position-based visual servoing (PBVS)) are introduced aloing with their advantages and disadvantages. Simulations in Matlab are carried out using the two methods, there advantages and drawbacks are illustrated and discussed. On this basis, a suggested system in mobile manipulation is proposed including an IBVS with an eye-in-hand camera configuration system. Simulations and experimentations are carried with this robot configuration in a search and rescue scenario, which show good performance.