Preliminary experiments in visual servo control for autonomous underwater vehicle

We consider a visually-guided autonomous underwater vehicle. We develop a position-based visual servo control of fixed and slow moving targets using visual position feedback and sensor-based orientation feedback. The visual position feedback is implemented on a stereo camera system. We use a compass and an inclinometer for orientation feedback. We also implement a computed torque controller, using Euler parameters to represent the orientation state, for the vehicle motion control. Using Euler parameters eliminates singularities in the model and the controller. Preliminary experimental results of visual servo control are reported.