Image-Based Visual Servoing Switchable Leader-Follower Control of Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Underwater Robot System

Confined and cluttered aquatic environments present a number of significant challenges with respect to inspection by robotic platforms, including localisation and communications. Some of these can be mitigated by using collaborative heterogeneous multi-robot teams. An important element of such a system is collaborative control. This paper addresses this challenge by presenting an Image-Based Visual Servoing (IBVS), leader-follower control system for hetero- geneous aquatic robots. Experiments were conducted in an uncluttered pond to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. The results show robots can maintain tracking each other with maximum x and y displacements of 0.42 m and 0.41 m, the maximum projection distance in the xy-plane of maintaining formation is 0.45 m, showing the stability and feasibility of deploying such system on underwater platforms.