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.