Parking with the essential matrix without short baseline degeneracies

This paper addresses the problem of visual control of a mobile robot. The system consists of a calibrated camera fixed onboard a robot with nonholonomic motion constraints. The parking task is defined by a reference image taken at the target location. The proposed control law is based on the essential matrix, but unlike traditional methods, it is not used to compute pose parameters. Instead, the control law is defined directly in terms of individual entries of the essential matrix by means of the input-output linearization of the system. Here we solve the problem of degeneracies due to short baseline by taking advantage of the planar motion constraint of the robot. Thus, a virtual target is defined providing a stable estimation of the essential matrix without degeneracies despite short baseline.