Visual Servo Control of a Mobile Robot in Agriculture Environments

MARCOS AYALA; CARLOS M SORIA; RICARDO CARELLI

Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines

Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Año: 2008 vol. 36 p. 392 - 410

1539-7734

In this paper, a visual servo control for a mobile robot evolvingin intensive farming environments consisting of rows of fruit trees is presented.The calculation of the current position of the robot is based on the perspectivelines that define the navigation’s path. These lines are obtained through theprocessing of visual images captured by the robot. The image is segmented usingstatistical techniques based on the analysis of the color characteristics and thespatial distribution of the descriptive points of the path. The perspective linesare determined through the Hough transform, which describe mathematicallythe navigation environment. Based on these lines, the relative position of thevehicle in the grove alleyway is calculated and a kinematics control algorithmis designed for the autonomous navigation along the corridor. The stabilityof the resulting control system is proved based on the Lyapunov theory. Theexperimental results in an environment of growing olive trees shows a goodperformance of the system design.