MOTION CONTROL OF PLANAR OBJECTS USING LARGE-AREA ARRAYS OFMEMS-LIKE DISTRIBUTED MANIPULATORS

摘要

This paper presents an overview of the Xerox PARC levitating media transport, includingrninitial experimental results. The levitating media transport is a closed-loop MEMS-basedrnmotion control system that employs 12 in. × 12 in. arrays of directed air jets to levitaternand control the motion of planar objects, such as sheets of paper, without contactingrnthem. An array of 32,000 optical sensors (photodiodes) senses the position of the mediarnin real-time, while 1,152 air jet actuators apply distributed control forces to the objectrnbeing transported. Initial results have demonstrated closed-loop positioning accuracies onrnthe order of 50 microns. Trajectory tracking accuracies are substantially larger in thisrnvery preliminary data, reflecting the primitive controller used for these initial experiments.