RepRap: Blog

The goal of the FPath Project is to follow the Feynman Path - in other words have machines make smaller machines which then make smaller machines. 

Up to this point I have mostly concentrated on developing the optical closed loop feedback control software to support the project. With the conclusion of Experiment 008, I have begun to make a rather modest foray into things small.

Experiment 008 takes a look at some very inexpensive and commonly available stepper motor driven micro linear actuators to see if they might be suitable for the creation and manipulation of millimeter scale objects.

Turns out they are. There are, of course, some caveats. You definitely have to use closed loop feedback control with these things - they have so much slop and backlash that open loop control would simply fail.

Have a look at the Experiment 008 Video and you can see these el-cheapo linear actuators reliably tracking to an accuracy of better than 50 microns.   

Labels: Closed Loop Feedback, FPath, Micro Stepper Linear Actuators, Nanotechnology