Control of Distributed Nanosteppers

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The research objective of this award is to develop distributed actuators in nanosteppers with staggered stepping schemes to maintain force control continuously in time. Currently, the loss of force control limits the use of such nano-steppers in precision trajectory tracking applications. The research will solve the following controls-related challenges: (i) manage the applied force in each nanostepper without inducing unwanted vibrations due to actuator dynamics; and (ii) design the actuator recruitment (i.e., the number of active nanosteppers at different time instants) based on the required force level. Analysis methods will be developed to investigate the effect of the recruitment procedures on the stability and performance of closed-loop systems with the distributed nanostepper. Additionally, the proposed work will design and build a proof-of-concept distributed nanostepper, and the theoretical developments will be verified experimentally. If successful, the results of this research will improve the performance of nanopositioners used in research and development of nanosciences and nanotechnologies. Example applications include: probe positioning in scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and alignment of optical components in the opto-electronics industry. The proposed work will provide research-training and education to undergraduate and graduate students in nanotechnology. The proposed research will be introduced into undergraduate curriculum through mechatronics design projects in a senior-level capstone design class. Moreover, the resulting undergraduate projects will be used in outreach/recruitment activities in annual open houses for high-school students. Additionally, the research efforts will be disseminated through seminars, publications, and conferences. Thus, the proposed work will build the research and human resource infrastructure needed to remain competitive in high-tech and emerging-nanotechnology industries.