INTERFACE BETWEEN MACRO AND NANO WORLDS Interface Between Macro and Nano Worlds doi:10.3991/ijoe.v6s1.1381 G. Škorc 1 , R. Šafaric 2 , D. Lukman 2 , S. I. Protsenko 3 and S. Zapušek 2 1 UPR d.o.o. & Co. k.d., Slovenia 2 University of Maribor/FERI, Maribor, Slovenia 3 Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine Abstract—This paper describes the design of a nanorobotic application which includes: nanorobotic arm, Akiyama sensor system, a vacuum chamber, and an interface tools for the nanorobotic hardware developed using C++ and VRML languages in order to create a desktop virtual-reality environment which improves visualisation and prevents collision of the nanomanipulator hardware with the associated workspace. The presented experiment shows how the used man-machine interface could be used for communication between macro and micro/nano worlds. Index Terms—man-machine interface, nano robot, sensing nano objects. I. INTRODUCTION The micro/nanorobotic experiment is the very last in a sequence of telerobotic experiments, done in our laboratory. It is not a real telerobotics experiment, because the distance between the client’s computer and a nanorobot is less than 1 metre. But the experiment could be treated as a telerobotics experiment because it connects two different worlds, the macro world of the user and the micro/nano world of the micro/nanorobot. The focus of the presented micro/nanorobotic experiment is that the user cannot see the micro/nanorobotic object’s movements etc [14], [15]. The 3D on-line image of the gripper and the object, even with powerful microscopic visual magnification, cannot be properly seen, due to the fact that the focused images of the objects and the nano-robotic tip tool can only be seen only within a narrow vicinity (few hundred μm) of the microscope’s optical lens focus. So, the same techniques [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], as for the real telerobotics experiment were used in order to make a connection between the macro and micro/nano worlds. In fact, we used the telerobotics platform developed for the previously developed telerobotics experiment using a haptic device [5]. The reason, we used the haptic device is that we also like to include a sense of touch in the virtual teach pendant, in order to make communication between the human and the nanorobot easier and more user- friendly. Of course, the produced force from the haptic device is inadequate as a force produced during a collision in the micro/nano world, but it is magnified several times, so the human sense of touch can detect any collision within the micro/nano world [12], [16]. The hardware of the nanorobotic application is presented in Figure 1. II. DESCRIPTION OF THE NANOROBOT HARDWARE A. Block scheme of the nanorobot predictive display The Figure 2 describes the block scheme of the micro/nanorobot operation system with predictive display. The human operator uses the blocks Model and Display as a visualization tool, where the virtual presentation of the real micro/nanorobot workcell with micro/nano objects can been seen. The block Model is also used a tool to prevent the collision of the micro/nanorobot arm (a gripper) with its environment. The block Sensors uses the Akiyamo probe for 3D measurement of the micro/nano object in the micro/nanorobot workspace. It is also used for calibration between real and virtual worlds (blocks Environment and Model). The block Master arm presents the haptic device, which is used for the user-friendly man- machine communication, so user also has the feeling of touch in the virtual world model. The block Slave arm is presented by our real lab micro/nano robotic arm. B. Micro/nanorobot cell The micro/nanorobotic system is divided into two parts (see Figure 3). The upper part of the figure consists of a real-time target application with a micro/nanorobotic cell: a development computer machine marked as 1, a real-time controller computer card marked as 2, and a target computer application marked as 3. The usual notebook computer marked as 1 is used as the development computer for control algorithms and user interfaces with an installed Windows XP operating system and a LabView 8.5 software package. Figure 1. The whole micro/nanorobotic application 52 http://www.i-joe.org