%0 Journal Article %J Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering %D 2007 %T Algorithms for on-line monitoring of micro spheres in an optical tweezers-based assembly cell %A Peng,T. %A Balijepalli,A. %A Gupta,S.K. %A LeBrun,T. %X Optical tweezers have emerged as a powerful tool for microand nanomanipulation. Using optical tweezers to perform auto- mated assembly requires on-line monitoring of components in the assembly workspace. This paper presents algorithms for estimat- ing positions and orientations of microscale and nanoscale com- ponents in the 3-Dimensional assembly workspace. Algorithms presented in this paper use images obtained by optical section microscopy. The images are first segmented to locate areas of in- terest and then image gradient information from the areas of in- terest is used to generate probable locations and orientations of components in the XY-plane. Finally, signature curves are com- puted and utilized to obtain component locations and orienta- tions in 3-D space. We have tested these algorithms with silica micro-spheres as well as metallic nanowires. We believe that the algorithms described in this paper will provide the foundation for realizing automated assembly operations in optical tweezers- based assembly cells. %B Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering %V 7 %P 330 - 330 %8 2007/// %G eng