A Unified Control Architecture for Macro-Micro Manipulation using a Active Remote Center of Compliance for Manufacturing Applications

2026-02-02

AI Summary

This work proposes a unified macro–micro cooperative control architecture that overcomes the limitations of conventional macro–micro manipulator systems, wherein the macro manipulator is restricted to coarse positioning while the micro manipulator bears all environmental interaction, thereby constraining system control bandwidth. By integrating the macro manipulator into the active interaction control loop for the first time and leveraging an Active Remote Center of Compliance (Active RCC) mechanism alongside a proxy model, the proposed approach simplifies controller design and enhances hardware compatibility. Experimental results demonstrate significantly improved dynamic interaction performance: the control bandwidth increases by 2.1× compared to traditional master–slave architectures and by 12.5× relative to conventional robotic force control. The effectiveness of the method is further validated in representative manufacturing tasks such as precision assembly.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Manipulation
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling and simulation for interactive and conversational systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: LLM based quality controls for crowd work

Abstract

Macro-micro manipulators combine a macro manipulator with a large workspace, such as an industrial robot, with a lightweight, high-bandwidth micro manipulator. This enables highly dynamic interaction control while preserving the wide workspace of the robot. Traditionally, position control is assigned to the macro manipulator, while the micro manipulator handles the interaction with the environment, limiting the achievable interaction control bandwidth. To solve this, we propose a novel control architecture that incorporates the macro manipulator into the active interaction control. This leads to a increase in control bandwidth by a factor of 2.1 compared to the state of the art architecture, based on the leader-follower approach and factor 12.5 compared to traditional robot-based force control. Further we propose surrogate models for a more efficient controller design and easy adaptation to hardware changes. We validate our approach by comparing it against the other control schemes in different experiments, like collision with an object, following a force trajectory and industrial assembly tasks.

Problem

• macro-micro manipulation
• interaction control bandwidth
• compliance control
• force control
• robotic manipulation

Innovation

• macro-micro manipulation
• active interaction control
• control bandwidth
• surrogate models
• unified control architecture