Torsten Scherer

Flexible automation of cell culture and tissue engineering tasks.

Until now, the predominant use cases of industrial robots have been routine handling tasks in the automotive industry. In biotechnology and tissue engineering, in contrast, only very few tasks have been automated with robots. New developments in robot platform and robot sensor technology, however, make it possible to automate plants that largely depend on human interaction with the production process, e.g., for material and cell culture fluid handling, transportation, operation of equipment, and maintenance. In this paper we present a robot system that lends itself to automating routine tasks in biotechnology but also has the potential to automate other production facilities that are similar in process structure. After motivating the design goals, we describe the system and its operation, illustrate sample runs, and give an assessment of the advantages. We conclude this paper by giving an outlook on possible further developments.

First steps in robot automation of sampling and sample management during cultivation of mammalian cells in pilot scale

The robot automation of sampling and the subsequent treatment and storage of aliquots during mammalian cell cultivations was investigated. The complete setup, the development and testing of the sampling device, the robot arm, and the cell imaging system are described. The developed sampling device is directly coupled to a pilot bioreactor. It allows the computerized sterile filling of cell broth into 50 mL sample tubes. After each sampling the whole tubing system is steam sterilized. For further off‐line treatment a robot takes the sample to the different devices. This robot is equipped with a camera and a force/torque sensor. A color‐based object recognition guides the arm in a complex surrounding with different illumination situations, enabling the robot to load the sampling device with tubes and take the sample to further devices. For necessary pipetting and refilling we developed a computerized device. Cells are automatically stained and counted using an imaging system. The cell number and viability is automatically saved in a process control system together with the on‐line parameters. During several cultivations in 20 and 100 L scale these main components of the automation strategy were successfully tested.

A service robot for automating the sample management in biotechnological cell cultivations

In this paper we present a mobile robot system that is capable of automating the sample management in a biotechnological laboratory. The system consists of a mobile platform and a robot arm. It can navigate freely in the laboratory and operate standard devices needed for the sample management. The platform uses an extended Kalman filter for localization and A* algorithm for path planning on a tangent graph computed from the laboratorys map. Motion execution has been designed to be as predictable as possible to not irritate, disturb or harm human personnel. The robot arm uses color vision to detect devices and compensate for positioning errors. The parameters and tasks needed to operate the devices are specified in simple scripts to allow quick and easy adaptations to other situations.

Robot Automation of Sampling and Sample Management during Cultivation of Mammalian Cells in Pilot Scale

In mammalian cell culture technology the last key issue for a completely automated process is the taking, analysing and storing of a sample from the bioreactor. It was necessary to develop a new device which fulfils the need to be steam sterilizable for an application in industrial production environment. The status of the culture is derived from the results of the analysed parameters of these samples. The normal procedure includes determination of the total and viable cell densities in relation to the media parameters (glucose, lactic acid, ammonia). The cell densities are retrieved by counting a stained cell sample. A cell free aliquot is stored in a freezer for further analyses (e.g. amino acids and product). Information for optimisation of feed and harvest strategies can be retrieved from the analysed parameters additionally.

Using an Industrial Robot Arm for Monitoring Cultivation of Mammalian Cells in Pilot Scale

Abstract The complete automation of sampling and the subsequent sample management in mammalian cell cultivations is the subject of this paper. To archive this goal an industrial robot arm is used. To be able to perform the tasks the robot arm is equipped with a handcamera and a force/torque sensor. Additionally to the normal laboratory equipment an computerized automatic sampling station, pipetting device and cell counter had to be employed. The essential steps, preparations and developments, the complete set-up in the laboratory and experiments performed so far are described.