Guidance principle and robustness issues for a biologically-inspired visual homing

Abstract

Analyses the guidance principle and the robustness features of a biologically-inspired visual homing algorithm for autonomous robots. The homing strategy uses colour images and is based on an affine matching model whose parameters are used to estimate real navigation displacement in the environment. The guidance principle of the visual homing is proven to be a visual potential function with an equilibrium point located at the goal position. The presence of a potential function means that classical control-theory principles based on the Lyapunov functions can be applied to assess the robustness of the navigation strategy.