Micro-to-nano optical resolution in a multirobot nanobiocharacterization station

A multi-robot cooperation station for nano-bio characterization of biological specimens is presented. The station is composed of two long travel range and high resolution robots equipped with self-sensing nanoprobes that are able to cooperate with each other and with standard AFM systems, over a common sample. The robots are guided by the use of an upright high-depth-of-field optical microscope to perform complex nano-bio characterization experiments. To achieve the required precision between the two robots reference frames, specific image processing techniques are needed. One of the tips is dedicated to acquire the topography of the sample at nano scale while the second probe performs the biocharacterization experiments. The obtained results show that the two robots can cooperate within the required resolution in bacterial nanomechanical characterization while high resolution topographic images are acquired.