Optimal Sliding Mode Control for Atomic Force Microscope Tip Positioning during Nano-Manipulation Process

Authors

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

2 Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

3 Center of Excellence in Design, Robotics and Automation, School of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This research presents the two-dimensional controlled pushing-based nanomanipulation using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). A reliable control of the AFM tip position is crucial to the AFM-based manipulation since the tip can jump over the target nanoparticle causing the process to fail. However, detailed modeling and anunderstanding of the interaction forces on the AFM tip has a central role in this process. In the proposed model, the Lund-Grenoble (LuGre) method is used to model dynamic friction force between the nanoparticle and the substrate. This model leads to stick-slip behavior of the nanoparticle which is in agreement with the experimental behavior at nanoscale. Derjaguin interaction force, which includes both attractive and repulsive interactions, is used to model the contact between the tip and nanoparticle. AFM is modeled by the lumped-parameters model. A controller is designed based on the proposed dynamic model for positioning of the AFM tip during a desired nanomanipulation task. Optimal sliding mode approach is used to design the controller. Performance of the controller is shown by the simulation.

Keywords