In order to improve the working efficiency and safety of multi degree of freedom series manipulator in the process of operation, a manipulator motion planning method based on ROS platform was proposed. The forward and inverse kinematics of ABB Robot was analyzed. The three-dimensional visual model of the robot was constructed through the MoveIt configuration package, and the line and arc planning experiments of the robot in Cartesian space were carried out. In order to improve the motion safety of the robot and the smoothness of joint motion, a linear interpolation algorithm was customized and integrated into moveit for motion simulation experiments. The experimental results show that: the motion trajectory of each joint of the robot is smooth and stable, indicating the feasibility of the interpolation algorithm. Finally, the obstacle avoidance simulation experiment of the manipulator was carried out, and the comparison experiment between the RRT (rapidly exploring random tree) algorithm and RRT-connect algorithm was carried out in MATLAB. The simulation shows that the RRT-Connect algorithm has fast speed and short path, which can better improve the planning efficiency of the manipulator under complex path.