On-line estimation of time varying capture delay for vision-based vibration control of flexible manipulators deployed in hostile environments

Thanks to recent advances in machine vision technology, vibration control of flexible manipulators using cameras have recently led to very promising results. However, in methods such as on-line sinusoidal regression, synchronization between the measured signal and the physical vibrational phenomenon is critical to properly damp vibrations. This paper comes back on the capture delay estimation as done in previous works and highlights the limitations of such a method. Then a new method using a synchronization sensor is proposed. Based on a cross-correlation technique, a novel algorithm for effective time delay estimation is derived. Experimental validation demonstrates that this method yields improved delay estimation which could be beneficial to the vibration damping.