Design and experimental research of new robot for clone selection

doi:10.12211/2096-8280.2020-059

Abstract

Abstract:

Clone-selecting is a prerequisite for gene sequencing, protein expression, high-throughput screening and so on. The operation is to select clones that meet specific requirements from medium, and then inoculate them for culture, which is performed so far mainly by manual operation. With rapid growth in demand for cloning selection at research institutes and pharmaceutical companies, the labor-intensive and less efficient selection can no longer meet the market demand, and robot is expected to be a solution. At present, challenges with such a robot include its clone-selecting efficiency and accuracy as well as the survival rate of selected clones during the culture. In this article, the design for a new type of clone-selecting robot is reported, which employs a cylinder to drive the gripping system with disposable needles connected to the pneumatic claw for clone-gripping. Moreover, an integrated system based on industrial computer control with the HexSight imagining technology was developed for position and identification. The robot was tested experimentally by selecting E. coli clones, which could position and identify the colonies, with an identification time of 130 ms and positioning accuracy of 0.03 mm for inoculating them into 96-well plates for culture.

Key words: clone-selecting robot, system design, control, position, identification

摘要：

克隆挑取主要运用于基因测序、蛋白质表达和高通量筛选等领域。当前克隆挑取任务主要由手工完成，随着科研院所以及医药公司对克隆挑取这项任务需求的爆发式增长，低效率的人工挑取已满足不了市场需求。与人工相比，机器人在挑取效率和精度上均得到了显著提升。基于传统克隆挑取机器人加工成本高、挑取周期长和消毒不彻底等因素，本文设计了一种新型克隆挑取机器人，采用气缸驱动夹取机构，在夹取机构中运用气爪来抓取一次性挑针的方法实现克隆挑取操作。搭建了一套基于工控机运动控制、HexSight菌落识别及定位的嵌入式集成系统，并通过对大肠杆菌克隆的挑取进行了实验验证。结果表明控制系统可以实现对菌落的识别与定位，定位精度为0.03 mm，各气缸、气爪可以精确挑取指定菌落并接种到96孔板中，证明了一次性挑针挑取方式的可行性。

关键词: 克隆挑取, 结构设计, 控制, 定位, 识别

CLC Number:

TH772

Wei ZHU, Wenling ZHAO, Kai HE. Design and experimental research of new robot for clone selection[J]. Synthetic Biology Journal, 2021, 2(1): 134-144.

朱伟, 赵文亮, 何凯. 新型克隆挑取机器人设计与实验研究[J]. 合成生物学, 2021, 2(1): 134-144.

Figures/Tables 18

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引脚	信号	功能
1	EXO 0	一号气爪输出
2	EXO 1	二号气爪输出
3	EXO 2	三号气爪输出
4	EXO 3	四号气爪输出
5	EXO 4	五号气爪输出
6	EXO 5	六号气爪输出
7	EXO 6	七号气爪输出
8	EXO 7	八号气爪输出
9	EXO 8	一号气缸输出
10	EXO 9	二号气缸输出
11	EXO 10	三号气缸输出

引脚	信号	功能
1	EXO 0	一号气爪输出
2	EXO 1	二号气爪输出
3	EXO 2	三号气爪输出
4	EXO 3	四号气爪输出
5	EXO 4	五号气爪输出
6	EXO 5	六号气爪输出
7	EXO 6	七号气爪输出
8	EXO 7	八号气爪输出
9	EXO 8	一号气缸输出
10	EXO 9	二号气缸输出
11	EXO 10	三号气缸输出

循环次数	气爪编号
循环次数	取针	挑取	接种	落针
1	5	7	3	4
2	4	6	2	3
3	3	5	1	2
4	2	4	8	1
5	1	3	7	8
6	8	2	6	7
7	7	1	5	6
8	6	8	4	5

循环次数	气爪编号
循环次数	取针	挑取	接种	落针
1	5	7	3	4
2	4	6	2	3
3	3	5	1	2
4	2	4	8	1
5	1	3	7	8
6	8	2	6	7
7	7	1	5	6
8	6	8	4	5

引脚	信号	功能
1	HOME 0	一轴原点输入
2	HOME 1	二轴原点输入
3	HOME 2	三轴原点输入
4	HOME 3	四轴原点输入
5	LIMIT 0+	一轴正向限位
6	LIMIT 0-	一轴负向限位
7	LIMIT 1+	二轴正向限位
8	LIMIT 1-	二轴负向限位
9	LIMIT 2+	三轴正向限位
10	LIMIT 2-	三轴负向限位
11	LIMIT 3+	四轴正向限位
12	LIMIT 3-	四轴负向限位
13	EXI 0	转盘零点输入
14	EXI 1	转块零点输入
15	EXI 2	转块一孔有无输入
16	EXI 3	转块二孔有无输入