Real-time vision-based contour following with laser pointer

This article addresses the visual servoing of a rigid robotic manipulator under fixed camera configuration. A laser pointer is mounted on the end-effector of a robot whose orientation can be controlled by automatic visual feedback. The control goal is to drive the laser spot to follow a visually determined planar contour by using a single-camera vision system. In this research, image-based control approach is proposed to achieve "precise" positioning in the absence of measurement noise. With this system, one can achieve automatic planar contour following using approximately calibrated single-camera vision. The control strategy is successfully validated in a real-time PC-based experimental system by performing experiments on arbitrary contour following.