Control of macro-micro manipulators revisited

A full-pose, position and orientation, trajectory-tracking control of kinematically redundant flexible-macro-rigid-micro manipulators is proposed. Redundancy is resolved such that the forces exciting the lowest-frequency 'modal coordinates' of the system are minimized, while imposing a proportional damping on the flexural dynamics, rendering it stable under certain conditions. The simulation results show that the initial posture of the manipulator plays an important role in satisfying the foregoing stability conditions. [DOI: 10.1115/1.1870039]