Adaptive visual feedback control of manipulators in uncalibrated environment

To implement a position-based visual feedback controller for a manipulator, it is necessary to calibrate the homogeneous transformation matrix between its base frame and the vision frame besides the intrinsic parameters of the vision system. In this paper, based on an important observation that the unknown transformation matrix can be separated from the visual Jacobian matrix, we design an adaptive controller for manipulators when the matrix is not calibrated. It is proved, with a full dynamics of the system, by the Lyapunov approach that the motion of the manipulator approaches asymptotically to the desired trajectory. Simulations and experimental results both demonstrate the performance of this new controller.