Quasi-Static Hybrid Position/Force Control of Flexible Manipulators by Macro-Micro Manipulator System

In this paper, hybrid position/force control of flexible manipulators is proposed. To realize the hybrid position/force control, a macro-micro system consisting of a flexible macro manipulator and a rigid micro manipulator attached at the tip of the macro part is used. The macro manipulator can move widely, but cannot realize the fast and precise motion because of its flexibility. On the contrary, the micro manipulator cannot move widely, but can realize the fast and precise motion. In this macro-micro system, the macro manipulator is controlled to roughly realize the desired position and force by a simple PD feedback, and the micro manipulator compensates the position and force errors caused in the macro part. First, kinematic equations of the macro-micro manipulator system are introduced. Second, utilizing the redundancy and the flexibility of the system, trajectory planning is discussed. Third, a quasi-static hybrid position/force control algorithm is proposed. Lastly, to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm, experimental results are shown.