Mechanics, optics, electronics and software, usually for one machine at a time. Most of these grew around the lithograph: tools for designing what it exposes, for driving CAD with an AI agent, and other instruments that share its problems — focus, flatness, stitching.
A FreeCAD workbench that models the way Fusion 360 does, and microfluidic chips designed as code with GDS output for the lithograph.
Fusion 360-style modelling inside FreeCAD 26.3: a command ribbon and Fusion shortcuts, extrude and revolve by sketch region, Press Pull, Shell, Joints. References between bodies are kept automatically, and failed kernel operations are retried. Around 100 test files.
Microfluidic chips designed as code: a parametric cell library, a hydraulic solver for pressures and flows (modified nodal analysis) and GDS output that goes straight to the lithograph. Browser UI on FastAPI and Vite.
Model Context Protocol servers that let an AI agent work inside engineering tools: Fusion 360, KLayout, and code review against a datasheet.
Captured through the bridge itselfA Fusion 360 add-in that lets an AI agent drive CAD: a local HTTP server that runs Fusion API calls on the main thread. 170 commands — sketches, features, assemblies and joints, CAM, sheet metal, export, screenshots.
An AI agent draws GDS / OASIS layout in a live KLayout window, one step at a time, while you watch and edit alongside.
MCP servers that work as a review team for software that talks to hardware. 53 specialised experts start from the datasheet — registers, pins, protocols, timing — and review and fix code against those facts. When they disagree, the outcome is recorded as an architecture decision.
A slide-scanning microscope and a direct-drive linear axis experiment.
A scanning microscope for histology slides: mechanics in FreeCAD, Arduino Mega firmware, a PySide6 control app. The same problems as in the lithograph — focus, flatness, stitching — on a different instrument.
An attempt at a direct-drive linear axis with no ball screw: a wound coil carriage travelling along a cylindrical rod, driven from an Arduino through a driver board on a lab supply. The second run shows smooth travel.
On the table: a working Prototype 1.0, the Prototype 2.0 design, full documentation and in-house software. A partner brings production, supply chain and market access; deal structure and investment size are open. Demonstrations and sample exposures by arrangement.