Virtual tooling for nanoassembly and nanomanipulations

Abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) (Binning et al., Phys Rev Lett 56:930-933, 1986) has been used as a nanomanipulation tool recently because it not only has high resolution scanning ability but also can be controlled as an end-effector in the nanoenvironment (Junno et al., Appl Phys Lett 66:3627-3629, 1995). There are several challenging problems including controller design with relatively large thermal drift and other uncertainties, real-time positioning and manipulation control with sensor feedback, and nanosensing and manipulation planning. In the last decade, many researchers are working on these problems and some methods have been proposed that solved these problems partially (Chen et al., IEEE Trans Autom Sci Eng 3:208-217, 2006; Li et al., IEEE Trans Nanotechnol 4:605-614, 2005; Resch et al., Langmuir 14:6613-6616, 1998; Hansen et al., Nanotechnology 9:337-342, 1998; Sitti, IEEE ASME Trans Mechatron 9:343-348, 2004). However, the problem caused by single tip interaction is still hindering its efficiency especially in handling nanoparticles/nano-objects to form patterns or nanostructures.