CameraMan: A multirobot system for nanohandling in a scanning electron microscope

This paper presents the detailed design of a nanohandling robot cell that can work inside an SEM's vacuum chamber and incorporates miniature video microscopes in order to enable fully automated nanohandling and -assembly. The geometrical and mechanical requirements are defined and addressed in a modular implementation. Image processing techniques can be used to recognize and track objects and three dimensional information can be obtained by stereo vision as well as the microscope's focus. To control this highly heterogeneous system, different low-level controllers are used, challenges for cooperatively controlling the multi-robot system are outlined, and high-level automation is discussed.