Instrumentation, VR and Haptic Systems applied to scanning and micromanipulation platforms: Research and Learning aspects *

Abstract

Mechanical actions and physical measurements at micro and nanoscale required special tools and instrumental platforms. This paper deals with the fabrication of various custom-made Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM) probes, on one hand to perform quantitative physical measurements on soft or magnetic materials, on the other hand to identify and to manipulate in 3D individual (sub)micronic object. Quantitative characterizations on micromagnet arrays achieved thanks to colloidal magnetic probes are presented. Some smart 3D manipulations of micro-spheres in fluid thanks to quartz SFM probes implemented in an interactive micro/nano-manipulation station are described. Finally, virtual reality (VR) stations combined with haptic devices and VR nano-scenes are introduced; their complementary with real micromanipulation stations equipped with haptic systems is underlined.