This thesis focuses on the problem of moving and localizing an autonomous mobile robot in its local environments. The first part of the manuscript concerns two basic motion tasks, namely the stabilization and trajectory tracking. Two control strategies were discussed: the integral sliding mode, and the method known as “Immersion and Invariance” for nonlinear control. The second part focuses on both 2D and 3D visual servoing techniques. Image moments were chosen as visual features as they provide a more geometric and intuitive meaning than other features, and they are less sensitive to image noise and other measurement errors. A new approach to visual servoing based on image is herein proposed. It is based on the generation of trajectories directly on the image plane (Calculation of the image features corresponding to a given Cartesian path). This approach ensures that the robustness and stability are extended due to the fact that the initial and desired locations of the camera are close. The trajectories obtained guarantee that the target remains in the field of view of the camera and the corresponding movement of the robot is physically feasible. Experimental tests have been conducted, and satisfactory results have been obtained from both implementations regarding motion control and visual servoing strategies. Although developed and tested in the specific context of a unicycle type robot, this work is generic enough to be applied to other types of vehicles.
