Fine Positioner
The Fine Positioner (FP) is a small, high-performance positioning system suitable for industrial or scientific applications. It can be used by itself, or in combination with an industrial robot to achieve extremely precise coarse-fine positioning capabilities. The FP positioning head has a thin moving armature, supported by an air bearing, which can be positioned over a plus or minus 1 mm range in x and y, and rotated up to plus or minus 1.75 degrees in theta about the z axis, providing the necessary degrees of freedom for accomplishing planar alignment tasks. There is a single direct-drive three-degree-of-freedom motor of novel design and internal optical position sensors to enable precise, controlled motion. Coupled with a standard industrial robot and external sensing means, improvements in precision up to two orders of magnitude can be achieved.