A new hybrid image-based visual servo control scheme

In image-based visual servo control, where control is effected with respect to the image, there is no direct control over the Cartesian velocities of the robot end effector. As a result, the robot executes trajectories that are desirable in the image, but which can be indirect and seemingly contorted in Cartesian space. In this paper we describe the cause of these phenomena, and introduce a new partitioned approach to visual servo control that overcomes the problem. In particular, we decouple the z-axis rotational and translational components of the control from the remaining degrees of freedom. Then, to guarantee that all features remain in the image throughout the entire trajectory, we incorporate a potential function that repels feature points from the boundary of the image plane. We illustrate our new control scheme with a variety of simulation results.