Motion planning of a macro-micro manipulator for flexible micromanipulation

Micromanipulation has been paid much attention due to its wide applications in micro/nano manufacturing and biological research in recent years. To achieve flexible micromanipulation in complex tasks, a macro-micro manipulator including 6-DOF macro-motion module and 3-DOF micro-motion module was presented. Based on the characteristics and demand of micromanipulation, a fast motion planning process for the macro-motion module was built. The collision detection model based on common sphere bounding box was improved. An example has been demonstrated to verify the collision detection model and motion planning process. The results showed that the proposed process could achieve a fast-planning speed and ensure smooth movement of the macro-motion module of the manipulator without collision.