Developments in robotic polishing and smoothing of optics

Over the past decade, Optimax has been developing a robotic platform for polishing and smoothing of optics. The robotic platform allows for flexibility and rapid adaptation to different geometries, and significant effort has been applied to improving process and determinism. The robotic platform will enable scaling production of large (up to 500 mm) freeform and aspheric optics much more easily than with commercial manufacturing machines, with improved flexibility to adapt to changing work requirements. This paper with review the robotic platform developments and step through the process of deterministic form correction and predictive smoothing on a simplified geometry.