Automated Assembly of Optical Systems based on Wavefront Predictions

Industrial assembly of optical systems is still a tedious and cost-intensive task that is mostly dominated by manual labor. Positional fine-adjustment of optical components is pivotal to ensure a desired performance of the optical device at hand. In this paper, we present a predictor-corrector framework in order to fully automatize such assembly procedures. Wavefront measurements can be utilized to continuously update a simulation model which in turn allows for predictions on future wavefront errors. This enables to take according correction measures during the assembly process if a certain wavefront tolerance specification is not met. In order to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed predictor-corrector framework, a beam expander is sequentially assembled. The setup consists of a laser, two bi-convex lenses and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and has to satisfy a certain wavefront tolerance specification after its assembly.