The goal of this thesis is to develop a novel polishing tool system, which can be attached to a CNC machine tool and execute a precision polishing job for an axially symmetric free surface. The precision polishing job is to remove the error surface profile, left by the previous machining process, on the work to improve its form precision. The system mainly includes a mechanism of 3 degrees of freedom, a misalignment compensator mounted on the mechanism, and an oscillation-free connector between tool and driver. The mechanism was designed to meet the required motions of tool trajectories. These motions are to assure the tool can play three specific functions. The first one is to keep the tool axis maintain a constant angle with the normal of polished surface. The second one is to control the wear rate distribution of tool to reduce the effect of tool wear on polishing rate. The final one is to achieve the goal of uniform polishing quality at every spot of polished surface. The conceptual design of this mechanism is done based on a strategy of problem decomposition. The misalignment compensator is to reduce the effect of tool misalignment on the variation of polishing rate. The compensator allows a translational motion and is constrained by a spring. When the tool is mounted on the compensator, the study will show that with a proper spring constant the effect of tool misalignment can be significantly reduced. The study will indicate that the smaller the tool mass is the higher the compensation efficiency can be. The oscillation-free connector is to separate the tool and its driver so that the mass of driver is not included in tool, while the driving function retains. It is composed of two parts. One part is connected to tool and the other one is mounted on driver. These two parts are not joined together by any mean. However, the motions of two parts will interfere with each other. Thus, the driving function between tool and drive can be maintained. It is noted that the vibration of driver can be successfully isolated from the tool if a soft material is attached to one part.

Lithium-ion batteries have been used extensively over the past two decades in the portable consumer electronics industry. More recently, Li-ion batteries have become candidates for much larger-scale applications such as electric vehicles and energy grid storage, which impose much more stringent requirements on batteries, especially in terms of cell lifetime. In order to develop batteries with improved lifetimes, a means of quickly and accurately evaluating battery life is required. The use of coulombic efficiency (CE) is an important tool in this regard, which provides a way to quantify parasitic reactions occurring within the cell. As more stable battery chemistries are developed, the rates of parasitic reactions occurring in the cell become reduced, and differences in CE among cells become increasingly smaller. In order to resolve these differences, charger systems must be developed which can measure CE with increased precision and accuracy. This thesis investigates various ways to improve the precision and accuracy of CE measurements. Using the high-precision charger (HPC) at Dalhousie University (built in 2009) as a starting point, a new prototype charger was built with several modifications to the design of the existing HPC. The effect of each of these modifications is investigated in detail to provide a blueprint for the development of next-generation charger systems. This prototype charger shows greatly improved precision and accuracy, with CE results that are approximately four times more precise than those of the existing HPC and over an order of magnitude more precise than high-end commercially available charger systems

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / In this paper, we propose a highly precise and fast digital image stabilization technique based on the control grid interpolation. To obtain more stable video sequence than the one from other existing DIS techniques, the small instability should be removed in as small accuracy with sub-pixel. Experimental results show that the proposed digital image stabilizer gives considerable improvement in the sense of computational complexity and the performance of stabilizing compared to conventional DIS techniques.

Este trabalho trata do desenvolvimento de uma mesa angular rotativa, para o microposicionamento de peças anesféricas durante a usinagem de ultraprecisão, para atender as tolerâncias nanométricas. Este microposicionamento angular é alcançado com o emprego de atuadores piezelétricos. Por se tratar de um tipo de sistema com movimento de rotação, relata-se o problema encontrado para energizar os atuadores. Este problema é abordado mostrando a alternativa encontrada destacando pontos relevantes, como: a) energização através de anéis coletores deslizantes, de cobre revestidos em prata, fixados no diâmetro externo do dispositivo; b)isolação elétrica entre os anéis e a peça; c) ligação do cabo coaxial vindo dos atuadores piezelétricos; d) aterramento dos cabos coaxiais, utilizando apenas um anel coletor deslizante. Explica como acontece a transmissão do sinal de corrente elétrica do aparelho de controle para os anéis deslizantes e posteriormente aos atuadores piezelétricos, utilizando contatos através de escovas, com 65% de prata e 35% de grafite, com molas duplas para garantir a pressão do contato, fixadas numa base rígida externa ao dispositivo. Destaca-se que a confiabilidade no microposicionamento da peça está na preservação da transmissão de uma corrente elétrica de 50mA para os atuadores. Conclui que é possível realizar o microposicionamento angular da peça que está sendo trabalhada, durante a usinagem de ultraprecisão, garantindo assim suas tolerâncias nanométricas / This work deals with a rotating tilt stage. It considers the micropositioning of aspheric workpieces during high precision machining, in order to obtain nanometric accuracies. It defines this angular micropositioning with the use of piezoelectric actuators. The problem found to energize the actuators, because it is a rotating driving mechanism is discussed. The chosen solution is presented and import points are highlighted, such as: a) to energize through sliding ring collectors, of copper coated in silver, fastened to the external diameter of the device; b) electric isolation between the rings and the workpiece; c) connection of the coax cable of the piezoelectric actuators; d) to ground the coax cables, just using a sliding ring collector. The transfer of electric current of the control system to the sliding rings and piezoelectric actuators is explained. Contacts with 65% of silver and 35% of carbon, with double springs to guarantee the pressure of the contact, fastened to a rigid base are used. The reliability in the micropositioning of a workpiece depends on the preservation of the electric current of 50mA to the actuators. It is shown that it is possible to realize the angular micropositioning of workpiece, during high precision machining, guaranteeing nanometric accuracies

Este trabalho trata do desenvolvimento de uma mesa angular rotativa, para o microposicionamento de peças anesféricas durante a usinagem de ultraprecisão, para atender as tolerâncias nanométricas. Este microposicionamento angular é alcançado com o emprego de atuadores piezelétricos. Por se tratar de um tipo de sistema com movimento de rotação, relata-se o problema encontrado para energizar os atuadores. Este problema é abordado mostrando a alternativa encontrada destacando pontos relevantes, como: a) energização através de anéis coletores deslizantes, de cobre revestidos em prata, fixados no diâmetro externo do dispositivo; b)isolação elétrica entre os anéis e a peça; c) ligação do cabo coaxial vindo dos atuadores piezelétricos; d) aterramento dos cabos coaxiais, utilizando apenas um anel coletor deslizante. Explica como acontece a transmissão do sinal de corrente elétrica do aparelho de controle para os anéis deslizantes e posteriormente aos atuadores piezelétricos, utilizando contatos através de escovas, com 65% de prata e 35% de grafite, com molas duplas para garantir a pressão do contato, fixadas numa base rígida externa ao dispositivo. Destaca-se que a confiabilidade no microposicionamento da peça está na preservação da transmissão de uma corrente elétrica de 50mA para os atuadores. Conclui que é possível realizar o microposicionamento angular da peça que está sendo trabalhada, durante a usinagem de ultraprecisão, garantindo assim suas tolerâncias nanométricas / This work deals with a rotating tilt stage. It considers the micropositioning of aspheric workpieces during high precision machining, in order to obtain nanometric accuracies. It defines this angular micropositioning with the use of piezoelectric actuators. The problem found to energize the actuators, because it is a rotating driving mechanism is discussed. The chosen solution is presented and import points are highlighted, such as: a) to energize through sliding ring collectors, of copper coated in silver, fastened to the external diameter of the device; b) electric isolation between the rings and the workpiece; c) connection of the coax cable of the piezoelectric actuators; d) to ground the coax cables, just using a sliding ring collector. The transfer of electric current of the control system to the sliding rings and piezoelectric actuators is explained. Contacts with 65% of silver and 35% of carbon, with double springs to guarantee the pressure of the contact, fastened to a rigid base are used. The reliability in the micropositioning of a workpiece depends on the preservation of the electric current of 50mA to the actuators. It is shown that it is possible to realize the angular micropositioning of workpiece, during high precision machining, guaranteeing nanometric accuracies

No description available.

This dissertation presents a high-precision positioner with a novel superimposed concentrated-field permanent-magnet matrix. This extended-range multi-axis positioner can generate all 6-DOF (degree-of-freedom) motions with only a single moving part. It is actuated by three planar levitation motors, which are attached on the bottom of the moving part. Three aerostatic bearings are used to provide the suspension force against the gravity for the system. The dynamic model of the system is developed and analyzed. And several control techniques including SISO (single input and single output) and MIMO (multi inputs and multi outputs) controls are discussed in the dissertation. The positioner demonstrates a position resolution of 20 nm and position noise of 10 nm rms in x and y and 15 nm rms in z. The angular resolution around the x-, y-, and z-axes is in sub-microradian order. The planar travel range is 160 mm ?? 160 mm, and the maximum velocity achieved is 0.5 m/s at a 5-m/s2 acceleration, which can enhance the throughput in precision manufacturing. Various experimental results are presented in this dissertation to demonstrate the positioner??s capability of accurately tracking any planar trajectories. Those experimental results verified the potential utility of this 6-DOF high-precision positioner in precision manufacturing and factory automation.

No description available.

Many laser devices acquire directly 3D objects and reconstruct their surface. Nevertheless, the final reconstructed surface is usually smoothed out as a result of the scanner internal de-noising process and the offsets between different scans. This thesis, working on results from high precision scans, adopts the somewhat extreme conservative position, not to loose or alter any raw sample throughout the whole processing pipeline, and to attempt to visualize them. Indeed, it is the only way to discover all surface imperfections (holes, offsets). Furthermore, since high precision data can capture the slightest surface variation, any smoothing and any sub-sampling can incur in the loss of textural detail.The thesis attempts to prove that one can triangulate the raw point cloud with almost no sample loss. It solves the exact visualization problem on large data sets of up to 35 million points made of 300 different scan sweeps and more. Two major problems are addressed. The first one is the orientation of the complete raw point set, an the building of a high precision mesh. The second one is the correction of the tiny scan misalignments which can cause strong high frequency aliasing and hamper completely a direct visualization.The second development of the thesis is a general low-high frequency decomposition algorithm for any point cloud. Thus classic image analysis tools, the level set tree and the MSER representations, are extended to meshes, yielding an intrinsic mesh segmentation method.The underlying mathematical development focuses on an analysis of a half dozen discrete differential operators acting on raw point clouds which have been proposed in the literature. By considering the asymptotic behavior of these operators on a smooth surface, a classification by their underlying curvature operators is obtained.This analysis leads to the development of a discrete operator consistent with the mean curvature motion (the intrinsic heat equation) defining a remarkably simple and robust numerical scale space. By this scale space all of the above mentioned problems (point set orientation, raw point set triangulation, scan merging, segmentation), usually addressed by separated techniques, are solved in a unified framework.

Measuring masses of long-period planets around F, G, and K stars is necessary to characterize exoplanets and assess their habitability. Imaging stellar astrometry offers a unique opportunity to solve radial velocity system inclination ambiguity and determine exoplanet masses. The main limiting factor in sparse-field astrometry, besides photon noise, is the non-systematic dynamic distortions that arise from perturbations in the optical train. Even space optics suffer from dynamic distortions in the optical system at the sub-mu as level. To overcome this limitation we propose a diffractive pupil that uses an array of dots on the primary mirror creating polychromatic diffraction spikes in the focal plane, which are used to calibrate the distortions in the optical system. By combining this technology with a high-performance coronagraph, measurements of planetary systems orbits and masses can be obtained faster and more accurately than by applying traditional techniques separately. In this paper, we present the results of the combined astrometry and and high-contrast imaging experiments performed at NASA Ames Research Center as part of a Technology Development for Exoplanet Missions program. We demonstrated 2.38x10(-5) lambda/D astrometric accuracy per axis and 1.72x10(-7) raw contrast from 1.6 to 4.5 lambda/D. In addition, using a simple average subtraction post-processing we demonstrated no contamination of the coronagraph field down to 4.79x10(-9) raw contrast.