Development of new instruments and measurement methods has advanced research in the field of nanotechnology.
Development of measurement systems used in research requires support from reconfigurable software. Application
frameworks can be used to develop domain-specific application skeletons. New applications are specialized from the
framework by filling its extension points.
This paper presents an application framework for nano- and micro-scale applications. The framework consists of
implementation of a robotic control architecture and components that implement features available in measurement
applications. To ease the development of user interfaces for measurement systems, the framework also contains ready-to-use
user interface components. The goal of the framework was to ease the development of new applications for
measurement systems. Features of the implemented framework were examined through two test cases. Benefits gained
by using the framework were analyzed by determining work needed to specialize new applications from the framework.
Also the degree of reusability of specialized applications was examined.
The work shows that the developed framework can be used to implement software for measurement systems and that the
major part of the software can be implemented by using reusable components of the framework. When developing new
software, a developer only needs to develop components related to the hardware used and performing the measurement
task. Using the framework developing new software takes less time. The framework also unifies structure of developed
software.
This paper validates a previously introduced scalable modular control architecture and shows how it can be used to
implement research equipment. The validation is conducted by presenting different kinds of micromanipulation
applications that use the architecture.
Conditions of the micro-world are very different from those of the macro-world. Adhesive forces are significant
compared to gravitational forces when micro-scale objects are manipulated. Manipulation is mainly conducted by
automatic control relying on haptic feedback provided by force sensors.
The validated architecture is a hierarchical layered hybrid architecture, including a reactive layer and a planner layer.
The implementation of the architecture is modular, and the architecture has a lot in common with open architectures.
Further, the architecture is extensible, scalable, portable and it enables reuse of modules. These are the qualities that we
validate in this paper.
To demonstrate the claimed features, we present different applications that require special control in micrometer,
millimeter and centimeter scales. These applications include a device that measures cell adhesion, a device that examines
properties of thin films, a device that measures adhesion of micro fibers and a device that examines properties of
submerged gel produced by bacteria. Finally, we analyze how the architecture is used in these applications.
KEYWORDS: Actuators, Sensors, Robots, Particles, Control systems, Head, Computer architecture, Digital signal processing, Liquids, Atomic force microscopy
This paper presents a micromanipulation platform for micro- and nanoscale applications. The micromanipulation
platform is a device platform that can be used for different applications that require actuation and sensing at nanometer
resolution. Presently, nanoactuation devices on the market are very expensive, and often limited in applications. Our
approach is to make the platform with off-the-shelf components and thus enable reasonable cost of the instrument.
In this paper we present a generalized modular architecture for both the device hardware and the control software on a
PC. The modular architecture enables swift changing of actuators, sensors and tools with minimal effort, thus being an
ideal frame for various applications. As a test case we present an adhesion measurement by pushing a small particle on a
coated surface and show how the architecture is used in this context. The test case shows several problems that occur in
nanoscale devices and how the device platform overcomes these problems. The results of the test case are analyzed and
the results are presented. The test case shows that the architecture is suitable for its purpose.
This paper presents the Embedded Object Concept (EOC) and a telepresence robot system which is a test case for the
EOC. The EOC utilizes common object-oriented methods used in software by applying them to combined Lego-like
software-hardware entities. These entities represent objects in object-oriented design methods, and they are the building
blocks of embedded systems. The goal of the EOC is to make the designing of embedded systems faster and easier. This
concept enables people without comprehensive knowledge in electronics design to create new embedded systems, and
for experts it shortens the design time of new embedded systems.
We present the current status of a telepresence robot created with Atomi-objects, which is the name for our
implementation of the embedded objects. The telepresence robot is a relatively complex test case for the EOC. The
robot has been constructed using incremental device development, which is made possible by the architecture of the
EOC. The robot contains video and audio exchange capability and a controlling system for driving with two wheels.
The robot consists of Atomi-objects, demonstrating the suitability of the EOC for prototyping and easy modifications,
and proving the capabilities of the EOC by realizing a function that normally requires a computer. The computer
counterpart is a regular PC with audio and video capabilities running with a robot control application. The robot is
functional and successfully tested.
This paper presents the Embedded Object Concept (EOC) and a telepresence robot system which is a test case for the EOC. The EOC utilizes common object-oriented methods used in software by applying them to combined Lego-like software-hardware entities. These entities represent objects in object-oriented design methods, and they are the building blocks of embedded systems. The goal of the EOC is to make the designing embedded systems faster and easier. This concept enables people without comprehensive knowledge in electronics design to create new embedded systems, and for experts it shortens the design time of new embedded systems. We present the current status of a telepresence robot created with second-generation Atomi-objects, which is the name for our implementation of the embedded objects. The telepresence robot is a relatively complex test case for the EOC. The robot has been constructed using incremental device development, which is made possible by the architecture of the EOC. The robot contains video and audio exchange capability and a controlling system for driving with two wheels. The robot is built in two versions, the first consisting of a PC device and Atomi-objects, and the second consisting of only Atomi-objects. The robot is currently incomplete, but most of it has been successfully tested.
This paper presents the Embedded Object Concept (EOC) and a telepresence robot system which is a test case for the EOC. The EOC utilizes common object-oriented methods used in software by applying them to combined Lego-like software-hardware entities. These entities represent objects in object-oriented design methods, and they are the building blocks of embedded systems. The goal of the EOC is to make the designing of embedded systems faster and easier. This concept enables people without comprehensive knowledge in electronics design to create new embedded systems, and for experts it shortens the design time of new embedded systems. We present the current status of the EOC, including two generations of embedded objects named Atomi objects. The first generation of the Atomi objects has been tested with different applications, and found to be functional, but not optimal. The second generation aims to correct the issues found with the first generation, and it is being tested in a relatively complex test case. The test case is a telepresence robot consisting of a two wheeled human height robot and its computer counter part. The robot has been constructed using incremental device development, which is made possible by the architecture of the EOC. The robot contains video and audio exchange capability, and a controlling and balancing system for driving with two wheels. The robot is built in two versions, the first consisting of a PDA device and Atomi objects, and the second consisting of only Atomi objects. The robot is currently incomplete, but for the most part it has been successfully tested.
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