Sensors 2015, 15(12), 31566-31580; https://doi.org/10.3390/s151229872
Multidirectional Image Sensing for Microscopy Based on a Rotatable Robot
1
Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
2
CityU Shenzhen Research Institute, Shen Zhen, 8 Yuexing 1st Road, Shenzhen 518000, China
3
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Yanshan University, 438 Hebei Street West Section, Haigang, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
4
College of Electromechanical Engineering, University of Petroleum (East China), No. 66, Changjiang West Road, Huangdao District, Qingdao 266580, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Vittorio M. N. Passaro
Received: 7 October 2015 / Revised: 3 December 2015 / Accepted: 10 December 2015 / Published: 15 December 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors for Robots)
Abstract
Image sensing at a small scale is essentially important in many fields, including microsample observation, defect inspection, material characterization and so on. However, nowadays, multi-directional micro object imaging is still very challenging due to the limited field of view (FOV) of microscopes. This paper reports a novel approach for multi-directional image sensing in microscopes by developing a rotatable robot. First, a robot with endless rotation ability is designed and integrated with the microscope. Then, the micro object is aligned to the rotation axis of the robot automatically based on the proposed forward-backward alignment strategy. After that, multi-directional images of the sample can be obtained by rotating the robot within one revolution under the microscope. To demonstrate the versatility of this approach, we view various types of micro samples from multiple directions in both optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, and panoramic images of the samples are processed as well. The proposed method paves a new way for the microscopy image sensing, and we believe it could have significant impact in many fields, especially for sample detection, manipulation and characterization at a small scale. View Full-Text
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Shen, Y.; Wan, W.; Zhang, L.; Yong, L.; Lu, H.; Ding, W. Multidirectional Image Sensing for Microscopy Based on a Rotatable Robot. Sensors 2015, 15, 31566-31580.