Nanotechnology will allow us to build devices enormously smaller than before and will bring fundamental changes to the disciplines such as engineering, chemistry, medicine, biology, and physics. The research in nanomanipulation and nanoassembly is tremendously important because most physical magnitudes characterizing nano scale systems significantly differ from those familiar in macro, meso, and micro systems. The main problem of nanomanipulation and nanoassembly using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is its lack of real-time visual feedback during manipulations. Fortunately, this problem has been overcome by our recently developed augmented reality system which includes a "Videolized" AFM imaging system and a haptic feedback system. The “Videolized" AFM means that the operator through movie like AFM images can monitor the changes of nano environment during the nanomanipulation in real time. The "Videolized" AFM is achieved by locally updating the AFM image in real-time based on the interactive force information obtained in real-time by AFM during the manipulation. The augmented reality system can provide both "videolized" real-time visual feedback and real-time force feedback. An operator can feel the interactive forces and observe the real-time changes of the nano environment during the nano manipulations. In this presentation, the theoretical foundation as well as the development of the augmented reality enhanced AFM will be discussed. The experimental results of utilizing the augmented reality enhanced AFM for the manipulation and assembly of nano particles, nano wires, and DNA molecules will also be presented.
Biography
Ning Xi
received his D.Sc. degree in Systems Science and
Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in
December,
1993, and B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Beijing University
of
Aeronautics and Astronautics. Currently, he is the John D. Ryder
professor of
Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University. Xi
received
the Best Paper Award in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on
Intelligent Robots
and Systems in August, 1995. He also received the Best Paper Award in
the 1998
Japan-USA Symposium on Flexible Automation.
Xi was awarded the first Early Academic Career Award by the IEEE
Robotics and Automation Society in May, 1999. In addition, he is also a
recipient of US National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Currently, his research interests include
robotics, manufacturing automation, micro/nano manufacturing and
devices, and
intelligent control and systems.