Micromanipulator system with multi-direction control joy stick and precision control means

Abstract

A micromanipulator system is comprised of a microscope, a micromanipulator for three-dimensionally manipulating a fine instrument in the field of the microscope, image pick-up device for picking up an image within the microscopic field, reference position setting device for setting a reference position of the micromanipulator along a height direction, detecting device for detecting a height position of a tip portion of the manipulator as positional information measured from the reference position along the height direction, and a display device for combining the image of the image pick-up device with the positional information detected by the detecting device to display the combined image thereon. The joy stick includes a manipulating lever, X- and Y- axial direction detectors, a control signal generation device, and a push button switch. The manipulating lever is swingable in an arbitrary direction with the center of a base. The X- and Y-axial direction detectors detect the inclined angle and the neutral position of the manipulating lever. The control signal generation device outputs a position control signal or a speed control signal on the basis of the detection result of the detectors. While the push button switch is not being depressed, the mode is a position control mode for outputting the position control signal. Also, when the push button switch is depressed, the mode is changed to the speed control mode for outputting the speed control signal. The system enables a micromanipulator to be controlled at an arbitrary angle, thus improving operability.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.