Using active deformable models to track deformable objects in robotic visual servoing experiments

We present a model-based approach for visual tracking and eye-in-hand robotic visual servoing. Our approach uses active deformable models to track a rigid or a semi-rigid object in the manipulator's workspace. These deformable models approximate the contour of the object boundary, defined by a set of control points. During tracking, the control points are updated at frame rates by minimizing an energy function involving the relative position of model points, the image data, and the characteristics of figure pixels. When visual servoing is combined with the use of active deformable models, movement of the manipulator can compensate for translations and deformations of the object's image. Experimental results are presented.