IMECE2006-15111 VISION BASED FORCE SENSING FOR NANOROBOTIC MANIPULATION

Over the last decade, considerable interest has been gen-erated in building and manipulating nanoscale structures. Ap-plications of nanomanipulation include study of nanoparticles, molecules, DNA and viruses, and bottom-up nanoassembly. We propose a Nanomanipulation System using the Zyvex S100 nanomanipulator, which operates within a scanning electron mi-croscope (SEM), as its primary component. The primary advan-tage of the S100 setup over standard scanning probe microscopy based nanomanipulators is the ability to see the object during manipulation. Relying on visual feedback alone to control the nanomanipulator is not preferable due to perceptual limitations of depth and contact within the SEM. To improve operator per-formance over visual feedback alone, an impedance-controlled bilateral teleoperation setup is envisioned. Lack of on-boar