Systems and methods for robotic transport
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for robotic transport are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, robotic systems for transporting biological samples include: a plurality of capillary vessels, in which each capillary vessel can contain a biological sample from a population; a receptacle that can contain the plurality of capillary vessels; a centrifuge; a first robotic device that can transport the receptacle between an input module and the centrifuge; a second robotic device that can transport the receptacle between the centrifuge and a sample harvest location; a cutting device that can cut each of the plurality of capillary vessels; a multi-well plate having a plurality of wells arranged in an array; and a third robotic device that can transfer at least one portion of each of the plurality of biological samples from each of the plurality of capillary vessels to a corresponding well in the array.
1. A robotic system for transporting biological samples, comprising:
(a) a plurality of capillary vessels, each capillary vessel containing a biological sample from a population;
(b) a receptacle, said receptacle containing the plurality of capillary vessels;
(c) a centrifuge;
(d) a first robotic device for transporting the receptacle between an input module and the centrifuge;
(e) a second robotic device for transporting the receptacle between the centrifuge and a sample harvest location;
(f) a cutting device for cutting each of the plurality of capillary vessels;
(g) a multi-well plate having a plurality of wells arranged in an array; and
(h) a third robotic device for transferring at least one portion of each of the plurality of biological samples from each of the plurality of capillary vessels to a corresponding well in the array.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second robotic device transports each of the plurality of capillary vessels between the sample harvest location and the multi-well plate.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the third robotic device transports each of the plurality of capillary vessels between the multi-well plate array and a disposal location.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second robotic device is further adapted to rotate the capillary during cutting.
5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising means for moving the array adjacent to an imaging element.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the imaging element comprises a microscope.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second robotic device comprises a pneumatic gripper adapted to handle centrifuge buckets and microplates and a photoelectric sensor adapted to detect the arms of the centrifuge rotor.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the third robotic device comprises a compressed-air source for transferring each portion, a plunger-collet-spring passive gripping device for handling the capillary vessels and a motor-planetary-gearhead-encoder-spur-gear actuation unit for rotating the capillary.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the receptacle is a bucket that is removable from the first robotic device and that couples to the centrifuge.
10. The system of claim 1 ,wherein the first robotic device is a selective compliance assembly robot arm.
11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a fourth robotic device for transferring the multi-well date between the multi-well plate and a liquid handling system.
12. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a fifth robotic device for transferring the multi-well plate between the liquid handling system and an incubator.
13. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a processor and wherein the processor is further adapted to perform motion planning for the first robotic device.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the motion planning is based on signals from a plurality of sensors.
15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first robotic device and the second robotic device are a single robotic device.
16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second robotic device and the third robotic device are a single robotic device.
17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first robotic device, the second robotic device and the third robotic device are a single robotic device.
18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the biological sample is used to identify a level of radiation exposure.
19. A method for transporting biological samples using a robotic system, comprising:
(a) transporting a receptacle to a centrifuge using a first robotic device, said receptacle containing a plurality of capillary vessels and each said capillary vessel containing a biological sample;
(b) centrifuging the receptacle;
(c) transferring the receptacle from the centrifuge to a cutting device using a second robotic device;
(d) cutting each of the plurality of capillary vessels using the cutting device; and
(e) transferring at least a portion of each of the plurality of biological samples from each of the capillary vessels to a corresponding well in a multi-well plate using a third robotic device, said multi-well plate having a plurality of wells arranged in an array.
20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising transporting each of the capillary vessels from the cutting device to the multi-well plate.
21. The method of claim 19 , further comprising transporting each of the capillary vessels from the multi-well plate to a disposal location.
22. The method of claim 19 , further comprising rotating each of the capillary vessels using the second robotic device while cutting each of the capillary vessels.
23. The method of claim 19 , further comprising moving the array adjacent to an imaging element.
24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the imaging element comprises a microscope.
25. The system of claim 15 , wherein the second robotic device comprises a pneumatic gripper adapted to handle centrifuge buckets and microplates and a photoelectric sensor adapted to detect the arms of the centrifuge rotor.
26. The system of claim 15 , wherein the third robotic device comprises a compressed-air source for transferring each portion, a plunger-collet-spring passive gripping device for handling the capillary vessels and a motor-planetary-gearhead-encoder-spur-gear actuation unit for rotating the capillary.
27. The system of claim 15 , wherein the receptacle is a bucket that is removable from the first robotic device and that couples to the centrifuge.
28. The system of claim 15 , wherein the robotic device is a selective compliance assembly robot arm.
29. The system of claim 15 , wherein a fourth robotic device for transfers the multi-well plate between the multi-well plate and a liquid handling system.
30. The system of claim 15 , further comprising a fourth robotic device for transferring the multi-well plate between the liquid handling system and an incubator.
31. The system of claim 15 , further comprising performing motion planning for the robotic device using a processor.
32. The system of claim 31 , wherein the motion planning is based on signals from a plurality of sensors.
33. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first robotic device and the second robotic device are a single robotic device.
34. The system of claim 15 , wherein the second robotic device and the third robotic device are a single robotic device.
35. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first robotic device, the second robotic device and the third robotic device are a single robotic device.
36. The system of claim 15 , wherein the biological sample is used to identify a level of radiation exposure.
37. A robotic system for transporting biological samples, comprising:
(a) a plurality of capillary vessels, each capillary vessel containing a biological sample from a population;
(b) a holding means for holding the plurality of capillary vessels;
(c) a centrifuge means for separating each of the biological samples into a plurality of elements;
(d) a first transporting means for transporting the holding means, including the plurality of capillary vessels, to the centrifuge means;
(e) a second transporting means for transporting the receptacle from the centrifuge to a cutting location;
(f) a cutting means for cutting each of the plurality of capillary vessels at the cutting location;
(g) a holding means having a plurality of locations, each of the plurality of locations for holding at least one portion of one of the plurality of biological samples; and
(h) a transferring means for transferring at least one portion of each of the plurality of biological samples from each of the plurality of capillary vessels to a corresponding location in the holding means.