Image servo path tracking control of a laser light point

The image servo path tracking (ISPT) control of a laser light point (LLP) is studied. The tasks in this study include the extraction of the images of a LLP and a path from the background scene, the skeletonization of the path image, and the development of a control algorithm to assure LLP tracking along the path. A modified version of the thinning algorithm SPTA is proposed. The proposed algorithm skeletonizes the path in a piecewise manner. It can take less computer time for the path skeletonization than the original SPTA and can be extended for a path with a growing end or even for an out-of-the-scene path. Included in the paper is also an experimental study to demonstrate how to realize the ISPT control in practice.