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Fully dense high-entropy carbide (HEC) ceramic has been prepared from a mixture of the group IV and V transition metal oxides by a two-step technique, which involved the vacuum carbosilicothermic reduction (VCSTR) synthesis of a composite powder containing 75 vol.% HEC, 20 vol.% (Nb1-xMex)Si2 (where Me = Ti, Zr, Hf, Ta), and 5 vol.% SiC followed by hot pressing of the as-synthesized product. It was found that the reaction between (Nb1-xMex)Si2 and HEC took place during hot pressing, thereby allowing effective sintering to occur. The mechanical properties of the obtained nearly single-phase HEC ceramic were comparable to or even slightly better than those of HEC ceramics prepared by other methods. The use of VCSTR synthesis as a key step in the preparation of fully dense HEC ceramic was concluded to be effective both in lowering the sintering temperature and in improving the mechanical properties.

Currently, there are practically no mechanization tools on the market that combine grass removal (mowing) and the levelling loosening of the upper soil layer, while cutting the root systems contained in the soil in one pass. The purpose of the study was to provide a theoretical rationale of the modifi ed design of the working tool of the combined rotary mower, as well as to conduct its laboratory and fi eld studies. Complex theoretical, laboratory and fi eld studies were carried out using the equipment of the Department of Technological and Transport Machines and Complexes, the Department of Technology of Processing and Storage of Agricultural Products of Tver State Agricultural Academy and recognized methods of experimental research. In the course of theoretical studies, the main parameters of the new working tool were determined, which enabled two technological processes to be carried out in one pass: grass mowing and cutting with loosening of the top soil layer (0…10 cm). On the basis of the obtained data, a workable model of the working tool was designed. When tested in laboratory conditions, regardless of the operating modes and the initial state of the cultivated soil, improved agrophysical properties were observed in terms of absolute humidity and saturation with root residues. It was found that the most optimal level of absolute humidity for the impact of the working tool on soils of light-loamy granulometric composition was 20%, while the best structural and density indicators were observed at all values of soil saturation with root residues; thgey averaged 2.24 units and 1.26 g/cm3. It has been established that at low operating speeds, it is advisable to use a higher rotation speed of the working tool (at 150 rpm), at the same time, with an increase in speed, the speed of rotation should be reduced (to 110 rpm). As a result of fi eld experiments, convincing data were obtained on the feasibility of using a new working tool that provides eff ective mowing of grassland vegetation (the purity of the stem cut is 95.6%) and loosening of the surface layer of the soil (0…10 cm), increasing the structural coeffi cient by 26.8% while optimizing the density and grinding of root systems. The next stages of the study include developing and manufacturing a workable design of a combined rotary mower prototype that ensures the optimal energy intensity of performance and the required quality of technological processes.

In an activity system aimed at creation of high-quality fodder base for animal agriculture, crop science plays the main role. It facilitates the increase in the productivity of forage crops, which guarantees the relevance of efficiency studies and the developed technologies for improving forage lands. The research was aimed at studying the impact of integrated approaches to improving forage lands in the Central Non-Black Earth Zone. The objectives of the research were as follows: to present a methodology for monitoring agricultural fields for the subsequent improvement of forage lands; to develop an efficient technology for improving forage lands using modern mechanization means; to study the productivity of different grass mixtures when implementing various options for soil cultivation. Based on the results of three years of theoretical and experimental research, a technological scheme for fodder land improvement (including technical processes) was compiled: monitoring of fields, preparation of grass mixtures and mineral fertilizers, preparation and tuning of machine-tractor aggregates, assessment of the yield of two-time grass cutting and secondary monitoring of fields. The proposed technology included several levelling technological operations (including levelling of hillocks), operations for the preparation of the seedbed and the seed material in the form of grass mixtures and mineral fertilizers and subsequent strip sowing. It has been established that when improving fodder lands as well as the quality of soil preparation, the prevalence of milling created more favorable conditions for increasing productivity of perennial grasses compared to disking.

At the moment, the issue of creating and positioning tools for deep loosening of the subsurface layer and the formation of aeration drainage has been studied in detail. The modern market offers many different tools for deep loosening or moling, but according to the analysis of machines and tools, as well as promising developments presented in the form of patents, we can say that there are no systems capable of performing deep loosening and drainage operations together. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in creating a fundamentally new star-shaped design of a draining tillage working body that will be able to form an optimal water-air regime of the soil due to the formation of maximum aeration drainage per unit area, with simultaneous loosening of the subsurface horizon, excluding over-compaction of the near-drainage zone as part of the soil-forming system. (Materials and methods) To simulate the operation process, predict and identify the optimal parameters and operating modes, as well as to bring the developed working body to field testing, it is necessary to conduct a number of laboratory experiments and studies. The article presents the scheme of the laboratory installation and described the principle of its operation. (Results and discussion) The article presents a full factor experiment with three factors and three levels of variation in three-fold repetition to assess the influence of existing factors on the operation of the star-shaped drainage working body, the quality of the treatment of the subsurface horizon and the formation of drains, the interaction of factors with each other, as well as creation a mathematical model of the process of combined tillage, including the processes of deep loosening and aeration drainage. (Conclusions) The proposed method will allow us to more accurately and systematically identify the optimal parameters and modes of operation of the body, based on changes in the optimization parameters.

Sosnovsky hogweed is a dangerous weed that occupies large areas of agricultural land, negatively affecting their properties, as well as causing severe chemical burns. In the Tver region, thickets of hogweed are spread over a large area, and every year it spreads further and further. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in developing and testing the method of suppression of Sosnovsky hogweed, analyzing the results of laboratory tests of an innovative method for removing weed vegetation using the developed ultra-frequency emitter ISCh-19. (Materials and methods) Based on the analysis of the literature, authors found that there are five main methods of combating hogweed, but these methods are ineffective. The article describes an electromechanical method that includes irradiation of the weed, which contributes to its more effective destruction, and a device for controlling the roots and seeds of the plant. (Results and discussion) Authors assembled and installed a prototype of the ISCh-19 emitter in the educational and scientific laboratory of the Department of Technological and Transport Machines and Complexes of the Tver State Agricultural Academy on the soil channel. The roots that were at a depth of 0.2 meters under the radiation of 45 minutes, began to have a humidity of 1-3 percent, the tips of the roots closer to the surface were burned, converted into mineral fertilizer. (Conclusions) With an increase in the temperature of exposure to the soil, the viability of plant materials of Sosnovsky hogweed located in the soil decreases. The ISCh-19 is effective in the fight against Sosnovsky hogweed: the sown seeds were exposed to radiation, as a result of the experiment, the seeds did not germinate and the weed lost its viability. This device will help in the future to simplify the fight against Sosnovsky hogweed, allowing to stop its spread on agricultural soils.

The radiofrequency (RF) mild hyperthermia effect sensitized by biodegradable nanoparticles is a promising approach for therapy and diagnostics of numerous human diseases including cancer. Herein, we report the significant enhancement of local destruction of cancer cells induced by RF hyperthermia in the presence of degraded low-toxic porous silicon (PSi) nanowires (NWs). Proper selection of RF irradiation time (10 min), intensity, concentration of PSi NWs, and incubation time (24 h) decreased cell viability to 10%, which can be potentially used for cancer treatment. The incubation for 24 h is critical for degradation of PSi NWs and the formation of silicic acid ions H+ and H3SiO4- in abundance. The ions drastically change the solution conductivity in the vicinity of PSi NWs, which enhances the absorption of RF radiation and increases the hyperthermia effect. The high biodegradability and efficient photoluminescence of PSi NWs were governed by their mesoporous structure. The average size of pores was 10 nm, and the sizes of silicon nanocrystals (quantum dots) were 3-5 nm. Degradation of PSi NWs was observed as a significant decrease of optical absorbance, photoluminescence, and Raman signals of PSi NW suspensions after 24 h of incubation. Localization of PSi NWs at cell membranes revealed by confocal microscopy suggested that thermal poration of membranes could cause cell death. Thus, efficient photoluminescence in combination with RF-induced cell membrane breakdown indicates promising opportunities for theranostic applications of PSi NWs. �� 2019 American Chemical Society.

We have investigated a diamond crystal that consists of several misorientated subgrains. The main feature of the crystal is the dark areas in the cathodoluminescent core that has ‘estuary-like’ boundaries extending along the subgrain interfaces. The core has >3100 ppm of nitrogen, and the share of the B form is >95%; the absorbance of the centre N3VH at 3107 cm–1 reaches 75 cm–1. The N3 centre absorbance, as well as N3 luminescence, is absent in the core. In the outer part of the crystal, bright blue luminescence of the N3 centre is apparent, and the N3 absorbance reaches 5.3 cm–1. These observations could be explained by the conversion of N3 centres to N3VH after attaching a hydrogen atom. After the full conversion of the N3 centres, the diamond becomes darker under CL. We hypothesise the dark core has a specific shape due to the post-growth diffusion of the hydrogen.

International audience

International audience; This paper deals with the task of autocalibration of scanning electron microscope (SEM), which is a technique allowing to compute camera motion and intrinsic parameters. In contrast to classical calibration, which implies the use of a calibration object and is known to be a tedious and rigid operation, auto- or selfcalibration is performed directly on the images acquired for the visual task. As autocalibration represents an optimization problem, all the steps contributing to the success of the algorithm are presented: formulation of the cost function incorporating metric constraints, definition of bounds, regularization, and optimization algorithm. The presented method allows full estimation of camera matrices for all views in the sequence. It was validated on virtual images as well as on real SEM images (pollen grains, cutting tools, etc.). The results show a good convergence range and low execution time, notably compared to classical methods, and even more in the context of the calibration of SEM.

This paper deals with the development of a vision-based control scheme for three-dimensional (3-D) laser steering. It proposes to incorporate a simplified trifocal constraint inside a path following scheme in order to ensure intuitively a 3-D control of laser spot displacements in unknown environment (target). The described controller is obtained without complex mathematical formulation nor matrix inversion as it requires only weak camera and hand-eye calibration. The developed control law was validated in both simulation and experimental conditions using various scenarios (e.g., static and deformable 3-D scenes, different control gains, initial velocities, etc.). The obtained results exhibit good accuracy and robustness with respect to the calibration and measurement errors and scene variations. In addition, with this kind of laser beam steering controller, it becomes possible to perfectly decouple the laser spot velocity from both the path shape and time. These features can fit several industrial applications (welding, micromachining, etc.) as well as surgical purposes (e.g., laser surgery) requirements.

Silicon nanoparticles (SiNP) are currently of great interest, especially in biomedicine, because of their unique physicochemical properties combined with biodegradability. SiNPs can be obtained in various ways and can have either a non-porous solid (sol-) or porous (por-) structure. In this work, we carry out detailed optical monitoring of sol- and por-SiNP biodegradation using Raman and photoluminescence (PL) micro-spectroscopy. SiNPs were obtained by ultrasound grinding of sol- or por-silicon nanowires, created by silver-assisted chemical etching of crystalline Si with different doping levels. In this case, sol-SiNPs consist of nanocrystals 30 nm in size, while por-SiNPs consist of small 3 nm nanocrystals and 16 nm pores. Both SiNPs show low in vitro cytotoxicity towards MCF-7 and HEK293T cells up to 800 μg/mL. The appearance of the F-band (blue–yellow) PL, as well as a decrease in the intensity of the Raman signal, indicate the gradual dissolution of the sol-SiNPs during 20 days of incubation. At the same time, the rapid dissolution of por-SiNP within 24 h is identified by the quenching of their S-band (red) PL and the disappearance of the Raman signal. The obtained results are important for development of intelligent biodegradable drug delivery systems based on SiNPs.

Wilson's disease (WD, OMIM # 277900 ), or hepatolenticular degeneration, is an autosomal recessive disease caused by a large number of different mutations in the ATP7B gene. More than 700 different mutations in the coding sequence of ATP7B have been described so far. Several studies provide information about specific mutations' frequencies in WD patients in Russia. However, there is no direct data on overall ATP7B mutation frequencies among Russian citizens. In this study, we used the NGS Ion Torrent platform to identify mutations in the ATP7B gene in a random sample of the Russian population. We performed analysis of coding sequences of the ATP7B gene for 962 people from the general population of the Novosibirsk region. Frequency of mutations with clinical significance was found to be 0.93%. The most frequent mutations with clinical significance were His1069Gln (0.62%) and Glu1064Lys (0.31%). Analysis of the spectrum and prevalence of mutations in the Russian population revealed a pattern similar to other countries with predominantly Caucasian populations.

One critical functionality of the carrier system utilized in targeted drug delivery is its ability to trigger the release of the therapeutic cargo once the carrier has reached its target. External triggering is an alluring approach as it can be applied in a precise spatiotemporal manner. In the present study, we achieved external triggering through the porous silicon (PSi) nanoparticles (NPs) by providing a pulse of infrared or radiofrequency radiation. The NPs were grafted with a temperature responsive polymer whose critical temperature was tailored to be slightly above 37°C. The polymer coating improved the biocompatibility of the NPs significantly in comparison with their uncoated counterparts. Radiation induced a rapid temperature rise, which resulted in the collapse of the polymer chains facilitating the cargo release. Both infrared and radiofrequency radiation were able to efficiently trigger the release of the encapsulated drug in vitro and induce significant cell death in comparison to the control groups. Radiofrequency radiation was found to be more efficient in vitro , and the treatment efficacy was verified in vivo in a lung carcinoma (3LL) mice model. After a single intratumoral administration of the carrier system combined with radiofrequency radiation, there was clear suppression of the growth of the carcinoma and a prolongation of the survival time of the animals. TOC image The temperature responsive (TR) polymer grafted on the surface of porous silicon nanoparticles (PSi NPs) changes its conformation in response to the heating induced by infrared or radiofrequency radiation. The conformation change allows the loaded doxorubicin to escape from the pores, achieving controlled drug release from TR PSi NPs, which displayed efficacy against malignant cells both in vitro and in vivo .

The article presents investigations of CdZnSSe crystals synthesized in silicate glass melt. Zn-rich glass manufactured in the 19th century has been found to contain CdZnSSe crystals of hexagonal crystal system exhibiting intense band-edge cathodoluminescence. The exciton luminescence peak of these crystals ranges 2.00–2.03 eV at 300 K and 2.02–2.06 eV at 80 K. Its shifts in individual crystals are attributed to minor variations of their composition. The value of the band gap derivative dEg/dT lies in the range from −2.5 × 10−4 to 0 eV/K in the interval from 80 to 300 K. CdZnSSe crystals in glass demonstrate high temperature and temporal stability. The glass-crystal composite on their basis is resistant to the electron-beam irradiation and long-term weathering. Possible applications of this composite in modern technologies, and processes and components that might be used for making glass stained with CdZnSSe in the past are also discussed.

International audience; With growing trend of miniaturization, new challenges in microrobotics have appeared. In particular, the complexityof microworld comes from the fact that visual sensors such as Scanning Electron Microscope have a very different principles of image formation in contrast with classical cameras, and their field of view stay very limited. Moreover, usually, the kinematic model of the robots used are not well defined. The consequence of both properties is that even a small movement of the robot arm leads to a huge object displacement comparing to the size of the viewed area. This paper develops a procedure allowing to perform object rotation while keeping it at the same 3D-position in open loop. Such performance is achieved by a method of robot calibration based on visual servoing and autofocus inside SEM. This kind of properties is required for manipulation and 3D reconstruction inside SEM.

International audience; This paper deals with the development of a vision-based controller for a continuum robot architecture. More precisely, the controlled robotic structure is based on three-tube concentric tube robot (CTR), an emerging paradigm to design accurate, miniaturized, and flexible endoscopic robots. This approach has grown considerably in the recent years finding applications in numerous surgical disciplines. In contrast to conventional robotic structures, CTR kinematics arise many challenges for an optimal control such as friction, torsion, shear, and non-linear constitutive behavior. In fact, in order to ensure efficient and reliable control, in addition to computing an analytical and complete kinematic model, it is also important to close the control loop. To do this, we developed an eye-in-hand visual servoing scheme using a millimeter-sized camera embedded at the robot's tip. Both the kinematic model and the visual servoing controller were successfully validated in simulation with ViSP (Visual Servoing Platform) and using an experimental setup. The obtained results showed satisfactory performances for 3-degrees of freedom positioning and path following tasks with adaptive gain control.

International audience; Estimation of 3D object position is a crucial stepfor a variety of robotics and computer vision applicationsincluding 3D reconstruction and object manipulation. Whenworking in microscale, new types of visual sensors are used suchas Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Nowadays, microandnanomanipulation tasks, namely components assembly,are performed in teleoperated mode in most of the cases.Measuring object position and orientation is a crucial steptowards automatic object handling. Current methods of poseestimation in SEM allow recovering full object movement usingits computer-aided design (CAD) model. If the model is notknown, most methods allow to estimate only in-plane translationsand rotation around camera optical axis. In the literature,SEM is considered as a camera with parallel projection or anaffine camera, which means image invariance to z-movementand bas-relief ambiguity. In this paper, authors address theproblem of measuring full 3D rotation of the unknown scenefor uncalibrated SEM without additional sensors. Rotations areestimated from image triplets by solving a spherical trianglefrom fundamental matrices only, without need of intrinsiccalibration, allowing to avoid parallel projection ambiguities.The presented results, obtained in simulation and on real data,allow validating the proposed scheme.

International audience; Stereo rectification is a crucial step for a numberof computer vision problems and in particular for dense 3Dreconstruction which is a very powerful characterization tool formicroscopic objects. Rectification simplifies and speeds up thecorrespondence search in a pair of images: the search space isreduced to a horizontal line. It is mainly developed for perspectivecamera model: a projective transformation is found and appliedto both images. This paper addresses the rectification problemfor an image pair obtained with Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM). In this case, image formation is described by a parallelprojection, indeed perspective effects can be neglected becauseof the low value of the sample size over working distanceratio. Based on these hypotheses, a robust estimation of thefundamental matrix, that describes the geometry of the imagepair, is proposed. It filters out up to 50% of outliers in afeature correspondence set. Then, the matrix is used to developa rectification solution: the problem is reduced to two rotationsabout the optical axis of the camera. The solution is accurate anddoes not require any calibration of SEM. It is validated with twoimage pairs from two different field effect SEMs

The sharpness of the images coming from a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is a very important property for many computer vision applications at micro- and nanoscale. It represents how much object details are distinctive in the images: the object may be perceived sharp or blurred. Image sharpness highly depends on the value of focal distance, or working distance in the case of the SEM. Autofocus is the technique allowing to automatically adjust the working distance to maximize the sharpness. Most of the existing algorithms allows working only with a static object which is enough for the tasks of visualization, manual microanalysis or microcharacterization. These applications work with a low frame rate, less than 1 Hz, that guarantees a low level of noise. However, static autofocus can not be used for samples performing continuous 3D motion, which is the case of robotic applications where it is required to carry out a continuous 3D position measurement, e.g., nano-assembly or nanomanipulation. Moreover, in addition to constantly keeping object in focus while it is moving, it is required to perform the operation at high frame rate. The approach offering both these possibilities is presented in this paper and is referred as dynamic autofocus. The presented solution is based on stochastic optimization techniques. It allows tracking the maximum of the sharpness of the images without sweep and without training. It works under uncertainty conditions: presence of noise in images, unknown maximal sharpness and unknown 3D motion of the specimen. The experiments, that were performed with noisy images at high frame rate (5 Hz), were conducted on a Carl Zeiss Auriga 60 FE-SEM. They prove the robustness of the algorithm with respect to the variation of optimization parameters, object speed and magnification. Moreover, it is invariant to the object structure and its variation in time.

A method for fast simultaneous on-site determination of methyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulfide in air was developed. The target compounds were actively collected on silica gel, followed by direct flash thermal desorption, fast separation on a short chromatographic column and detection by means of mass spectrometer with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization. During the sampling of ambient air, water vapor was removed with a Nafion selective membrane. A compact mass spectrometer prototype, which was designed earlier at Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, was used. The minimization of gas load of the atmospheric pressure ion source allowed reducing the power requirements and size of the vacuum system and increasing its ruggedness. The measurement cycle is about 3 min. Detection limits in a 0.6 L sample are 1 ppb for methyl mercaptan and 0.2 ppb for dimethyl sulfide.

This paper studies the fabrication of hybrid mi-crocomponents through automated robotic microassembly. The robotic station used for the microassembly is presented in this paper and its use for the assembly of flexible optical microcomponents is done as a case study. Fully automated microassembly is done for better repeatability and accuracy of the tasks and to reduce the time cycle. For this reason, two complementary techniques are proposed and presented in this paper. The first technique consists of automated manipulation and insertion tasks using stereovision CAD-model based visual tracking. The second technique has been performed using hybrid force/position control and enable to perform grasping, guiding and releasing tasks in less than 1 s despite microscale specificities. These specificities are mainly manifested by the predominance of surface forces, the difficulty of integration sensors at this scale, the very small inertia of microcomponents and their high dynamics and the lack of precise models.

Silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) obtained by mechanical grinding of porous silicon have been used for visualization of living cells in vitro. It was found that SiNPs could penetrate into the cells without any cytotoxic effect up to the concentration of 100 μg/ml. The cell cytoplasm was observed to be filled by SiNPs, which exhibited bright photoluminescence at 1.6 eV. SiNPs could also act as photosensitizers of the singlet oxygen generation, which could be used in the photodynamic therapy of cancer. These properties of SiNPs are discussed in view of possible applications in theranostics (both in therapy and in diagnostics). (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Regression models are popular tools for rate-making in the framework of heterogeneous insurance portfolios; however, the traditional regression methods have some disadvantages particularly their sensitivity to the assumptions which significantly restrict the area of their applications. This paper is devoted to an alternative approach–quantile regression. It is free of some disadvantages of the traditional models. The quality of estimators for the approach described is approximately the same as or sometimes better than that for the traditional regression methods. Moreover, the quantile regression is consistent with the idea of using the distribution quantile for rate-making. This paper provides detailed comparisons between the approaches and it gives the practical example of using the new methodology.

Microassembly represents a very promising solution to microproducts and complex Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) fabrication. Since, in the case of teleoperated assembly, an operator is the main source of errors, there is a great interest in microassembly automation. Its main issue consists in precise estimation of object position. Previous studies demonstrate the possibility of application of modelbased visual tracking algorithms from ViSP (Visual Servoing Platform) library. However, the methods of macroassembly cannot be directly applied when working with microobjects. The characterization of single-view visual tracking notably revealed the complexity of depth estimation in microscale, which is due to small depth variation in the seen images compared with the distance from camera. So, an algorithm of Z coordinate reconstruction using a second camera was developed and analyzed for visual servoing task. It was then used to automate microassembly. Experiments demonstrate the possibility of complex microcomponent automatic microassembly with precision better than 10 micrometers.

International audience; Microassembly is an innovative alternative to the microfabrication process of MOEMS which is quite complex. It usually implies the use of microrobots controlled by an operator. The reliability of this approach has been already confirmed for the micro-optical technologies. However, the characterization of assemblies has shown that the operator is the main source of inaccuracies in the teleoperated microassembly. Therefore, there is a great interest in automating the microassembly process. One of the constraints of automation in microscale is the lack of high precision sensors capable to provide the full information about the object position. Thus, the usage of visual-based feedback represents a very promising approach allowing to automate the microassembly process. The purpose of this paper is to characterize the techniques of object position estimation based on the visual data, i.e. visual tracking techniques from the ViSP library. These algorithms allows to get the 3D object pose using a single view of the scene and the CAD model of the object. The performance of three main types of model-based trackers is analyzed and quantified: edge-based, texture-based and hybrid tracker. The problems of visual tracking in microscale are discussed. The control of the micromanipulation station used in the framework of our project is performed using a new Simulink block set. Experimental results are shown and demonstrate thepossibility to obtain the repeatability below 1 micrometer.

International audience; Microassembly is an innovative alternative to the microfabrication process of MOEMS which is quite complex.It usually implies the usage of microrobots controlled by an operator. The reliability of this approach has been already confirmed for the micro-optical technologies. However, the characterization of assemblies has shown that the operator is the main source of inaccuracies in the teleoperated microassembly, so there is a great interest in automating the microassembly process. One of the constraints of automation in microscale is the lack of high precision sensors capable to provide the fullinformation about the object position. Thus, the usage of visualbased feedback represents a very promising approach allowing to automate the microassembly process. The purpose of this paper is to characterize the techniques of object position estimation based on the visual data, i.e. visual tracking techniques from the ViSP library. These algorithms allows to get the 3D object pose using a single view of the scene and the CAD model of the object. The performance of three main types of modelbased trackers is analyzed and quantified: edge-based, texturebased and hybrid tracker. The problems of visual tracking in microscale are discussed. The control of the micromanipulation station used in the framework of our project is performed using a new Simulink block set. Experimental results are shown and demonstrate the possibility to obtain the repeatability below 1µm.