Modeling of 3-D interactive forces in nanomanipulation

Previous studies on nanomanipulation using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) go through the scan-design-manipulation-scan cycle, in which an operator does not have any real-time visual feedback during manipulation. In this paper, a simple model of tip-substrate-object interactive forces has been presented for the qualitative and quantitative analysis. Based on this model, the real-time tip-substrate-object interactive forces are used to update the AFM images in order to provide the operator with real-time visual feedback. The real-time visual display combining with real-time force feedback provides an augmented reality environment, in which the operator not only can feel the real-time 3-D interaction forces but also observe the real-time changes of the nano-environment.