Hand-eye system in nano manipulation world

In consequence of the trend toward miniaturization, the importance of nano manipulation with precision ranging from 1 nm to 1 /spl mu/m, has become recognized. The paper describes the features of nano manipulation, emphasizes the necessity of the visual control to execute tasks in the nanometer world, and proposes an automatic nano manipulation system equipped with visual feedback function, the nano-hand-eye system. The system consists of nano manipulator, scanning electron microscope, real-time image processors and a host computer integrating hand and eye. Visually controlled nano manipulation under scanning electron microscope is first demonstrated, and the effectiveness of visual feedback is then proved by the engraving task of a thin line with uniform width of 3 /spl mu/m in desired direction.