Improving Positioning Accuracy using a General Framework for Macro Mini Manipulation

This paper introduces a general framework for macro mini manipulator to improve the positioning accuracy of an industrial manipulator. RMRC (Resolved Motion Rate Control) is used as the controller for the industrial (macro) manipulator while PID with gravity compensation is used as the controller of the mini manipulator. Gain scheduling is introduced to reduce the coupling error that arises from the motions of the macro and mini manipulator. This paper also presents a trajectory planner which ensures the macro and mini manipulator will always be inside of their respective workspaces. The experiment utilizes 7-DOF Mitsubishi PA-10 as the macro manipulator and 1-DOF voice coil actuator as the mini manipulator. The experiments show that the framework improves the position accuracy.