LAT - Live Axis Turning

该奖项的研究目标是开发一种新的钻石车削自由曲面的方法，称为活轴车削。这种方法利用了空气轴承、直线电机、高分辨率编码器和实时控制方面的最新进展，将钻石车削到非旋转对称表面的能力扩大了。其结果将是一个轻便的移动轴，动态范围为2毫米，工作频率为20周/秒。该轴可以安装在传统的钻石车床上，以更短的时间和更低的成本生产高质量的自由形状光学表面。该方法是通过使用创新的轻质活塞材料来减少运动质量，通过新的空气轴承设计来增加刚度，并通过精确控制将误差运动减少到10纳米以下，来提高当前设计的性能。如果成功，该项目的结果将加速自由曲面光学系统的实施，从而造福于消费者、科学和国家安全。对于消费者来说，轻型可穿戴显示器、改进的视力矫正和医学视觉设备将可用，空间科学仪器将减少体积和质量，更紧凑的无人机、平视显示器和轻型夜视设备将有助于军事。但这个项目也将产生超出所讨论的具体应用领域的影响。它将提供与无阻尼精密系统的设计和非旋转表面的运动规划相关的信息。

The research objective of this award is to develop a new method for diamond turning freeform surfaces called Live Axis Turning. This method expands the capability of diamond turning to non-rotationally symmetric surfaces by taking advantage of recent advances in air bearings, linear motors, high-resolution encoders and real-time control. The result will be a lightweight, moving axis with a dynamic range of 2 millimeter and operating frequency of 20 cycles/second. This axis can be fitted to a conventional diamond turning machine to produce high-quality freeform optical surfaces in shorter times and at lower costs. The approach is to improve the performance of current designs by reducing moving mass with innovative lightweight piston materials, increasing stiffness with new air bearing designs and reducing error motion to less than 10 nanometers with precise control. If successful, the results of this project will hasten the implementation of freeform optical systems to the benefit of consumers, science and national security. For consumers lightweight wearable displays, improved vision correction and medical vision devices will be available, space science instrument will have reduced volume and mass and more compact unmanned aerial vehicles, heads-up displays and lightweight night vision gear will assist the military. But this project will also have an impact beyond the specific applications areas discussed. It will provide information related to the design of undamped precision systems and motion planning for non-rotationally surfaces.