Solo Robo
The interest in automating processes in different sectors of the industry has drastically increased during the past years. The collaboration partner, a well-known pharmaceutical company, has previously worked with the Feasibility Lab to detect the lab processes with highest potential for automation – and found the SoloVPE device, which performs protein concentration measurements. Therefore, the objective of this project was to further investigate the automation possibilities of the device and develop a more advanced solution applicable for the use in the laboratory.
In addition to developing a robot that fulfills all the physical tasks, a communication system between the SoloVPE and the robot needed to be devised. The project was therefore divided into two main tasks: the hardware and the software task. To accomplish a successful hardware manipulation of the SoloVPE, a cartesian robot with a customized gripper was developed. The robot is able to pick and place objects into the SoloVPE and after measurement, removes and disposes of them. To enable a smooth integration of the robot in the measurement process, a working software had to be ensured. To communicate between the two systems, a communication platform was established which allowed full control and synchronization of the devices. Furthermore, a user interface was implemented to interact intuitively with the fully automated system. In the end, the system was able to measure a desired amount of probes fully automated, without external interference.