Adaptive trajectory tracking control of microcantilever's tip used in AFM with a general nonlinear tip-sample interaction force

This paper presents an adaptive trajectory tracking control of microcantilever's tip used in AFM systems with a general nanomechanical tip-sample interaction force. This controller is capable of dealing with uncertainties such as tip mass, damping coefficients and the complicated nature of the nonlinear interaction force present in the AFM systems. For this, a distributed-parameters based model for microcantilever with a tip mass is developed. On the other hand, a general interaction force between the tip and surface of the sample is assumed here which affects the microcantilever's response and due to its intrinsic nonlinearity, it adds complexity to the system. Simulation results demonstrate that proposed adaptive controller is capable of precise trajectory tracking with various applications in manipulation of and imaging systems.