2013/12/17 by Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan, Gopalakrishnan, Maithreyi, Markus Gühr +1
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Surface Polishing Techniques #FOS: Physical sciences #Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers #Photonic and Optical Devices #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph) #physics.ed-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1312.6557
arxiv created 2013/12/17 · openalex publication_date 2013/12/17 · arxiv updated 2013/12/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We describe a flexible, simple to build, low-cost, and computer-controlled optical mirror actuator system we developed for undergraduate research laboratories. Geared motors for hobby robotics are controlled by an Arduino microcontroller board in combination with an H bridge to finely position the mirror mount actuators. We present a graphical user interface based on the free Python script language. The price of the fully controlled actuator system is thus only a small fraction of the price of any commercial system; however, it is quickly implementable due to the use of open hardware electronics. We show the performance of the system and give an outlook for future expansions and use in advanced optical setups.