A robot-assisted acoustofluidic end effector

Liquid manipulation is the foundation of most laboratory processes. For macroscale liquid handling, both do-it-yourself and commercial robotic systems are available; however, for microscale, reagents are expensive and sample preparation is difficult. Over the last decade, lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2022-10, Vol.13 (1), p.6370-13, Article 6370
Main Authors: Durrer, Jan, Agrawal, Prajwal, Ozgul, Ali, Neuhauss, Stephan C. F., Nama, Nitesh, Ahmed, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/166/988
639/766/25/3927
Animals
Automation
Chemical reactions
End effectors
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lab-on-a-chip
Lab-On-A-Chip Devices
Liquids
Microfluidic devices
Microfluidics
multidisciplinary
Reagents
Robot arms
Robotics
Robots
Sample preparation
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Space shuttle
Zebrafish
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Summary:Liquid manipulation is the foundation of most laboratory processes. For macroscale liquid handling, both do-it-yourself and commercial robotic systems are available; however, for microscale, reagents are expensive and sample preparation is difficult. Over the last decade, lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems have come to serve for microscale liquid manipulation; however, lacking automation and multi-functionality. Despite their potential synergies, each has grown separately and no suitable interface yet exists to link macro-level robotics with micro-level LOC or microfluidic devices. Here, we present a robot-assisted acoustofluidic end effector (RAEE) system, comprising a robotic arm and an acoustofluidic end effector, that combines robotics and microfluidic functionalities. We further carried out fluid pumping, particle and zebrafish embryo trapping, and mobile mixing of complex viscous liquids. Finally, we pre-programmed the RAEE to perform automated mixing of viscous liquids in well plates, illustrating its versatility for the automatic execution of chemical processes. Lab-on-a-chip systems have been widely used in microscale liquid manipulation and greatly benefit from automation. Durrer et al. show a robot-assisted acoustofluidic end effector system, comprising a robotic arm and an acoustofluidic device, that combines both robotic and microfluidic functionalities.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-34167-y