CameraMan: nanohandling robot cell inside a scanning electron microscope with flexible vision feedback

This paper presents a nanohandling robot cell with flexible visual feedback designed to work inside an SEM's vacuum chamber in order to support teleoperated and fully automated nanohandling. Rail-based robots position miniature video microscopes that observe the handling from different angles and with different magnifications. Image processing techniques can be used to recognize and track objects and three-dimensional information can be obtained by stereo vision and by the microscope's focus. The feasibility and advantages of the CameraMan concept are analyzed by the implementation of a robot cell prototype. A self-learning controller is used to control the non-linear parts of the system, challenges for cooperatively controlling the multi-robot system are outlined and high-level automation is discussed.