Robot visual servoing using the example of the inverted pendulum

In this paper the control of the well known inverted pendulum will be performed by using visual servoing algorithms. The pendulum will be mounted on the flange of an articulated robot arm and it will be observed by 2D-camera. The inclination angle of the pendulum will be computed in the real time with the help of image processing algorithms. In order to swing-up the pendulum, a special algorithm will be designed to generate the coordinated robot motions. Whereas, the balancing of the pendulum will be performed by a state space controller. Both algorithms will be implemented in the standard robot controller with a relatively high cycle time. Furthermore, the calculation of the inclination angle of the pendulum by the camera, which is integrated in the closed loop controller, instead of an angular transmitter will make the successful achievement of the task more difficult. All the proposed algorithms are verified successfully in the practical experiments.