This paper reports the development of a new miniature force sensor designed to measure contact forces at the tip of a microsurgical instrument in three dimensions, and its application to scaled force feedback using a cooperatively manipulated microsurgical assistant robot. The principal features of the sensor are its small size of 12.5 mm in diameter and 15 mm in height, a novel configuration o...

Kevin Philip Schultze: Advanced System Components for the Development of a Handheld Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (Under the direction of J. Michael Ramsey) This work describes the development and implementation of system components utilized in a handheld ion trap mass spectrometer (MS). Current state-of-the-art portable mass spectrometers fall in the 30 to 40 lb. range due to their large and heav...

We have combined a novel low temperature positioning mechanism with a single-chip miniature superconducting quantum interference device ~SQUID! magnetometer to form an extremely sensitive new magnetic microscope, with a demonstrated spatial resolution of ;10 mm. The design and operation of this scanning SQUID microscope will be described. The absolute calibration of this instrument with an idea...

Recent advances in endoscopic optics and miniature video camera technology have made video otoscopy (VO) accessible to audiologists in a practical way. Seven categories of VO applications are presented with clinical examples: (1) general examination of the earcanal and tympanic membrane, (2) physician communication/telemedicine, (3) hearing instrument selection and fitting applications, (4) pat...

An innovative design for a miniature time-of-flight mass spectrometer has been developed employing several newly designed components. These include: (1) a gridless, focusing ion source allowing for the use of very high extraction energies in a maintenance-free design, (2) a new method of construction for an ion reflector using rolled flexible circuitboard material, and (3) an improved center-ho...

This paper documents the development of Caress, an electroacoustic percussive instrument that blends drumming and audio synthesis in a small and portable form factor. Caress is an octophonic miniature drum-set for the fingertips that employs eight acoustically isolated piezo-microphones, coupled with eight independent signal chains that excite a unique resonance model with audio from the piezos...

nstruments are the key components of almost all space missions. They monitor the environment at Earth, observe other planets, and gather intelligence information, providing these data to scientists and analysts on the ground. APL has had a long history of providing innovative space instruments for in situ and remote sensing observations for both DoD and NASA. Future missions will require instru...

One of the important aspects in the development of high-throughput platforms based on a fleet of scientific instruments in the form of miniature wireless robots designed for fast operations at the nanometer-scale, is the conception of an embedded locomotion system capable of fast displacements between two successive locations while being accurate enough to position the robot within the range of...

Physiological hand tremor and other manual positioning errors limit precision in microsurgical procedures. Our research has involved development of adaptive algorithms and neural network methods for real-time compensation of such errors. This paper presents a novel design for an active hand-held microsurgical instrument to implement these algorithms, particularly during vitreoretinal microsurge...