Abstract

Complete automation is the ultimate goal in health care industry and this is of utmost importance in clinical laboratories. Processor based bio robots are involved in all these automation procedures. In this study, the indigenous robotic platform, used in clinical chemistry analyzers, which is highly flexible and user friendly for small or medium sized hospitals, is designed. A microcontroller based robotic arm is put forth as the robotic platform and this is capable of handling blood samples, reagents, etc. The basic design is of a compact, three circular analytical plates, placed one inside the other. The samples and reagents are loaded onto the analytical plate; the arm then transfers the blood samples and reagents successively to the reaction cell and if required, next to an incubating unit. Two different arms perform all the different tasks based on the controlling algorithm. The circuit manipulating the path of the robot arm, along with other controlling circuitry of the arm is embedded within the arm itself. By automating this unit, the flexibility and throughput of the tests will be increased. Controlled and precise use of reagents and high accuracy of results are additional advantages. Data handling is also simplified. The robotic arm and analytical plate has been designed, a prototype model has been made and synchronization between the two has been achieved. The clear description of arm and analytical plate movement along with the synchronization algorithms are presented in this study.

Keywords:

Analytical plate, automation, clinical chemistry analyzer, robotic arm, sampling system,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

Open Access Policy

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Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.