In this paper, the feedback linearization approach is used to introduce a motion controller for unicycle-type wheeled mobile robots (UWMRs). The output function is defined as a linear combination of the error state. The novel scheme is firstly tested in numerical simulation and compared with its corresponding experimental result. Three controllers are taken from the literature and compared to the proposed approach by means of experiments. The gains of the experimentally tested controllers are selected to obtain identical energy consumption. The Optitrack commercial vision system and Pioneer P3-DX UWMR are used in real-time experimental tests. In addition, two sets of experimental results for different motion tasks are provided. The results show that the proposed controller presents the best tracking accuracy.

Vision-aided flexible link robot positoning using the Camera Space Manipulation (CSM) method is developed. The primary motivation for this work is to use an autonomous vision-aided robotic system to pick-up and accurately move a flexible object that it encounters. The work consists of analytical and experimental investigation of the performance of CSM for a kinematic model of the PUMA manipulator with a flexible structure at the wrist which accounts for the gravitation. Trade-offs between camera view parameters and axial deflection model parameters were investigated. View parameter reestimation and maneuvering resulted a very accurate placement of the end-effector at the target.