Wavefront predictions for the automated assembly of optical systems

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 use wavefront predictions to aim for fully automated assembly procedures. Wavefront measurements along with position identification methods 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 approach and methods, 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.