Laboratory non-contact liquid drop operation intelligent mobile robot based on acoustic tweezers

Abstract

The invention discloses a laboratory non-contact liquid drop operation intelligent mobile robot based on acoustic tweezers. A liquid drop generation system of the robot is used for generating liquid drops; the liquid drop capturing and moving system comprises a movable mechanical arm and an acoustic tweezers actuator mounted at the tail end of the movable mechanical arm, and is used for capturing the liquid drops generated by the liquid drop generating system and transferring the liquid drops to the liquid drop operating platform in a suspended state; the liquid drop operation platform is used for receiving liquid drops transferred by the liquid drop capturing and moving system; and the control unit is in signal connection with the liquid drop generation system and the liquid drop capturing and moving system and is used for controlling the liquid drop generation system and the liquid drop capturing and moving system to act. The robot can autonomously complete biological 3D printing and chemical reaction based on liquid drop operation in a laboratory, a large number of reaction raw materials can be saved, the time needed by an experiment is shortened, automation of liquid drop operation is achieved, and meanwhile the safety of the experiment can be remarkably improved through non-contact liquid drop operation.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of droplet manipulation, and in particular to a laboratory non-contact droplet manipulation intelligent mobile robot based on acoustic tweezers. Background Art

[0002] Droplet manipulation is a key step in many scientific experiments, especially in the fields of biochemistry, drug screening, material synthesis, etc. Traditional droplet manipulation methods often require manual work, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also difficult to ensure the accuracy and stability of the operation.

[0003] In recent years, with the cross-integration of robotics and chemical science, chemical reaction robots have gradually become a research hotspot. Such robots can autonomously perform chemical reactions, improve reaction efficiency, reduce resource consumption, and reduce the risk of human operation. However, although such systems significantly improve synthesis efficiency and save labor costs, and have certain intelligence and autonomous learning, they have not fundamentally solved the problem of material waste in the chemical synthesis process, and the time of the chemical reaction itself has not been shortened.

[0004] Microfluidics is an interdisciplinary technology that has emerged in recent years. It achieves precise control of fluids at a microscopic scale through microscale channels and microreactors. However, the operation of microfluidic chips also faces challenges such as high precision requirements and complex operations. In addition, since the droplets processed in microfluidic chips are extremely small, the intermolecular interactions inside the liquid are enhanced, resulting in increased viscosity. High-viscosity liquids not only increase the difficulty of droplet manipulation, but may also slow down chemical reactions and increase reaction time.

[0005] In order to improve the safety, precision and economy of droplet manipulation, it is urgent to improve the laboratory droplet manipulation method. Summary of the invention

[0006] The present invention provides a laboratory contactless droplet operation intelligent mobile robot based on acoustic tweezers, which can autonomously complete biological 3D printing and chemical reactions based on droplet operation in the laboratory, and has the characteristics of saving reaction raw materials, shortening the time required for the experiment, automating the droplet operation, and significantly improving the safety of the experiment.

[0007] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following specific technical solutions:

[0008] A laboratory non-contact droplet manipulation intelligent mobile robot based on acoustic tweezers, the robot comprising a droplet generation system, a droplet capture mobile system, a droplet manipulation platform and a control unit;

[0009] The droplet generation system is used to generate droplets; the droplet capture and movement system includes a movable robotic arm and an acoustic tweezers actuator installed at the end of the movable robotic arm, which is used to capture the droplets generated by the droplet generation system and transfer them to the droplet operation platform in a suspended state; the droplet operation platform is used to receive the droplets transferred by the droplet capture and movement system; the control unit is connected to the droplet generation system and the droplet capture and movement system by signal, and is used to control the actions of the droplet generation system and the droplet capture and movement system.

[0010] Furthermore, the droplet generation system includes a droplet injection pump and a syringe;

[0011] The syringe is installed on the droplet injection pump; the droplet injection pump is used to drive the syringe to form droplets at the end of the needle of the syringe; the needle is covered with a capillary glass tube whose end is bent by heat treatment to reduce the capillary force of the needle outlet on the droplets, thereby facilitating the acoustic tweezers actuator to capture the droplets.

[0012] Furthermore, the acoustic tweezers actuator is a double-hemispherical acoustic tweezers composed of an ultrasonic suspension support, an ultrasonic transducer array, a control drive system and a host computer;

[0013] The ultrasonic suspension support is fixedly mounted on the end of the movable mechanical arm, is made of resin material by 3D printing, and has two hemispherical surfaces arranged opposite to each other;

[0014] The ultrasonic transducer array is mounted on the inner spherical surface of the two hemispherical surfaces to form a sound field for capturing droplets;

[0015] The control drive system is connected to the ultrasonic transducer array signal and is used to control the ultrasonic transducer array to output a sound field signal;

[0016] The host computer is connected to the control drive system signal, and is used to generate control signals with different phases and send them to the control drive system, so as to realize real-time control of the intensity and position of the sound field of the holographic acoustic tweezers.

[0017] Furthermore, the ultrasonic transducer array includes 36 ultrasonic transducers distributed on each hemisphere; the ultrasonic transducer is used to generate sinusoidal ultrasonic waves with a frequency of 40 kHz.

[0018] Furthermore, it also includes a camera for recording the droplet operation process, and the camera is fixedly installed on the ultrasonic levitation support.

[0019] Furthermore, it also includes a UV lamp required for light curing operation during the printing process, and the UV lamp is fixedly installed on the ultrasonic suspension support.

[0020] Furthermore, the movable mechanical arm includes a movable chassis and a mechanical arm installed on the top of the movable chassis.

[0021] Furthermore, the droplet operation platform is a mesh structure made of a fiberglass board cut by laser into squares with a side length of 1 mm, and a super-hydrophobic coating is coated on the surface of the mesh structure.

[0022] Furthermore, the droplet operation platform is a culture dish used for bio-printing and biological experiment operations.

[0023] Furthermore, it also includes a waste liquid tank for collecting chemical experiment waste liquid, a chemical experiment waste trash can and a recovery test tube for chemical products.

[0024] Compared with the prior art, the technical solution of the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0025] The robot of the present invention controls the droplet generation system to generate droplets through a control unit, and controls the droplet capture movement system to capture droplets and transfer them to a droplet operation platform; the droplet operation platform is used to receive droplets to achieve 3D printing or chemical reactions; the control unit can control the amount and speed of droplet extrusion that meets the requirements; the droplet capture movement system can achieve fine movement and large-range movement of the acoustic tweezers actuator through a movable robotic arm; therefore, during the entire process, the robot of the present invention can complete chemical and biological experimental operations without the need for experimenters, significantly reducing the time required for manual operation and improving the overall experimental efficiency; the robot operates on the droplets, saving chemical reagents, saving the time required for the reaction, and improving the reaction efficiency; the droplets can be finely manipulated and moved through the acoustic tweezers actuator at the end of the robotic arm, improving the accuracy and stability of the reaction, facilitating the control of the reaction, and the non-contact operation method can avoid contamination.

[0026] Compared with common chemical reaction robots, the robot of the present invention solves the problem of reagent waste by manipulating droplets, reduces the time required for chemical reactions by precisely manipulating droplets for chemical reactions, and avoids contamination caused by contact between reagents and container walls using non-contact operations. Compared with microfluidic chips, the robot of the present invention uses holographic acoustic tweezers to suspend droplets for operations, avoiding operational problems caused by increased viscosity due to small liquid volume, reducing the time required for chemical reactions, reducing the difficulty of experimental operations, and improving the safety, accuracy, and economy of droplet operations.

[0027] Therefore, the robot of the present invention can realize laboratory automated droplet operation, reduce reagent waste, avoid reagent contamination, and improve reaction safety; at the same time, it can reduce the time required for chemical reactions, improve chemical reaction efficiency, and accurately control the progress of reactions; in addition, the present invention can reduce the time required for manual operations, improve research efficiency, and improve the economy of the overall operation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the laboratory non-contact droplet operation intelligent mobile robot of the present invention when taking liquid;

[0029] Figure 2 for Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the enlarged structure of the droplet operation platform;

[0030] Figure 3 for Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the enlarged structure of the operating end of the medium-net droplet operating platform;

[0031] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of using the robot of the present invention to arrange droplet arrays on a hydrophobic surface;

[0032] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of using the robot of the present invention to implement chemical reaction operation droplet mixing on a droplet operation platform;

[0033] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the mobile system for droplet capture;

[0034] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the acoustic tweezers actuator at the end of the movable robotic arm;

[0035] Figure 8 Schematic diagram of the acoustic tweezers actuator capturing droplets;

[0036] Fig. 9 This is a schematic diagram of the operation flow of the robot of the present invention;

[0037] Fig.10 This is a schematic diagram of the operation flow of a non-contact biological 3D printing embodiment;

[0038] Fig.11 It is a schematic diagram of the operation flow of a non-contact chemical reaction embodiment.

[0039] Among them, 1-droplet injection pump, 2-syringe, 3-droplet operation platform, 4-robotic arm, 5-mobile chassis, 6-acoustic tweezers actuator, 7-experimental droplet, 8-3D printing bracket, 9-UV lamp, 10-camera. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0040] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0041] This embodiment provides a laboratory non-contact droplet manipulation intelligent mobile robot based on acoustic tweezers, which can achieve accurate use, movement, mixing of biochemical reagents, and storage and recovery of generated samples, so as to realize non-contact biological 3D printing and chemical reaction operations. Figure 1 As shown in the structure, the robot includes a droplet generation system, a droplet capture and movement system, a droplet operation platform 3 and a control unit; in this embodiment, the droplet generation system and the droplet operation platform 3 are both located on the experimental table. In the actual experimental process, the droplet generation system and the droplet operation platform 3 can also be placed directly on the ground or the desktop instead of on the experimental table.

[0042] The droplet generation system is used to generate droplets 7, such as droplets 7 of precise and tiny volumes; the droplet generation system includes a droplet injection pump 1 and a syringe 2; the syringe 2 is installed on the droplet injection pump 1; the droplet injection pump 1 is used to drive the syringe 2 to form droplets 7 at the end of the needle of the syringe 2; the droplet injection pump 1 can control the size of the droplets 7 generated by the syringe 2 by setting the flow rate, flow velocity and infusion volume. The needle is covered with a capillary glass tube whose end is bent by heat treatment to reduce the capillary force of the outlet of the needle on the droplet 7, so as to facilitate the acoustic tweezer actuator 6 to capture the droplet 7. The capillary glass tube constituting the needle can be lengthened. The droplet 7 mainly refers to the droplet of the reagent to be reacted in the chemical reaction or the droplet of the biological ink of biological 3D printing. The raw material biological ink used for biological 3D printing is composed of a mixture of hydrogel and living cells. The droplet generation system is a droplet injection pump 1, which can use a push-pull injection pump that meets the experimental accuracy requirements. It can be equipped with syringes 2 of different specifications according to the experimental requirements, and the push-pull scale is programmed and controlled by the control unit to achieve automatic, timely and appropriate control of the extrusion of droplets 7; the above-mentioned syringe 2 can use a common medical syringe 2, which is used to inject liquid reagents, and the experimenter needs to inject the biochemical reagents into the syringe 2 in advance. The needle of the syringe 2 has been specially treated, and the needle is covered with a bent needle tube end to reduce the capillary force of the ordinary needle on the droplet 7; the above-mentioned droplet 7 is a biochemical experimental reagent solution, and the sample after extrusion and suspension is spherical with a diameter of about 1mm. Specifically, the needle treatment method of the above-mentioned syringe 2 is as follows: when using a syringe 2 with an inner diameter of 4.7 mm, two bent glass tubes are used to connect the needle tip, one is a glass tube with an inner diameter of 0.6 mm, which is sleeved on the outside of the needle tip and fixed and sealed with hot melt adhesive, and the other is a glass tube with an inner diameter of 0.4 mm, which is sleeved on the inside of the glass tube with an inner diameter of 0.6 mm, and the part extending out of the 0.6 mm glass tube mouth is burnt and bent. After the above bending treatment, the needle tube of the syringe 2 for sampling droplet 7 reduces the capillary force of the tube mouth of the needle tube on the sampling droplet 7, making it easier for the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 to take away the droplet 7 at the tube mouth. It should be noted that when using syringes 2 of different specifications, glass tubes of corresponding specifications should be selected.

[0043] The droplet capture mobile system includes a movable robotic arm and an acoustic tweezers actuator 6 installed at the end of the movable robotic arm, which is used to capture droplets 7 generated by the droplet generation system and transfer them to the droplet operation platform 3 or the culture dish in a suspended state to complete the experiment; the movable robotic arm includes a mobile chassis 5 and a robotic arm 4 installed on the top of the mobile chassis 5; wheels are provided at the bottom of the mobile chassis 5, and the robot arm 4 can be moved by rolling under the driving action of the driving device; the robot arm 4 can be a six-degree-of-freedom robot arm 4. The acoustic tweezers actuator 6 is a double-hemispherical acoustic tweezers composed of an ultrasonic suspension support, an ultrasonic transducer array, a control drive system, and a host computer; the ultrasonic suspension support can be fixedly installed at the end of the mechanical arm 4 by screws, and is made of resin material through a 3D printing process, and has two relatively arranged hemispherical surfaces; the ultrasonic suspension support can also be made of ordinary plastic; the ultrasonic transducer array is installed on the inner sphere of the two hemispherical surfaces to form a sound field for capturing the droplet 7; the control drive system is connected to the ultrasonic transducer array signal to control the ultrasonic transducer array to output the sound field signal; the host computer is connected to the control drive system signal to generate control signals of different phases and send them to the control drive system to achieve real-time control of the intensity and position of the sound field of the holographic acoustic tweezers. The ultrasonic transducer array includes 36 ultrasonic transducers distributed on each hemispherical surface, and a specific sound field for grabbing and capturing the droplet 7 is formed by superposition of the sound field; the ultrasonic transducer is used to generate a sinusoidal ultrasonic wave with a frequency of 40kHz. The above-mentioned droplet capture and movement system can realize large, medium and small scale movement operations of the droplet 7. The large-scale distance movement operation of the droplet 7 within the laboratory is realized by the movement of the mobile chassis 5; the medium-scale distance movement operation of the droplet 7 is realized by the robotic arm 4, which is used to position the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 at a certain point within the three-dimensional working range; the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 at the end of the robotic arm 4 can capture the droplet 7 after the droplet 7 is generated, and realize the micro-scale fine movement of the position of the droplet 7 by changing the sound field.

[0044] The droplet operation platform 3 is used to receive the droplets 7 transferred by the droplet capture and movement system; Figure 2 and Figure 3 As shown, the droplet operation platform 3 is a mesh structure made of glass fiber board cut by laser into a square grid with a side length of 1 mm, and a super hydrophobic coating is applied on the surface of the mesh structure for chemical reaction. The droplet operation platform 3 is a culture dish for bioprinting and biological experiment operation. The droplet operation platform 3 is a hydrophobic operation platform, which is used for chemical reaction operation platform in laboratory droplet operation, such as: droplet 7 mixing. Figure 2As shown, a fixed bracket can be provided at the bottom of the droplet operation platform 3. The droplet operation platform 3 adopts a mesh structure to avoid blocking the acoustic field of the acoustic tweezer actuator 6 and prevent affecting the printing accuracy. The droplet operation platform 3 can be clamped on the experimental table. The super hydrophobic coating is formed by brushing S500 nano coating, the particle diameter of which is about 19nm, and a silicon dioxide film can be formed on the surface of the mesh printing table to achieve the following effect: Figure 4 The hydrophobic printing platform can assist the acoustic tweezers to flexibly control the position of the droplet 7 through phase change without blocking the acoustic field, and ensure that the droplet 7 will not be adsorbed by the printing platform. Figure 5 shown.

[0045] The control unit is connected to the droplet generation system and the droplet capture mobile system by signal, and is used to control the actions of the droplet generation system and the droplet capture mobile system. The control unit is used to interact with the experimenter to obtain instructions, and to control the actions of the droplet generation system and the movable robotic arm in real time and accurately. Through the control unit, the droplet generation system can be controlled to automatically, timely, and appropriately extrude the droplets 7, such as Figure 1 As shown; while the droplet 7 is extruded, the robot arm 4 is controlled to move, and the droplet 7 is captured and taken away by the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 at the end of the robot arm 4; the movable robot arm is controlled to move to the droplet operation platform 3, and the droplet 7 is placed at the specified position of the droplet operation platform 3 while keeping the acoustic tweezers end actuator upright; the sound field intensity and stationary point position of the holographic acoustic tweezers are controlled to control the movement of the droplet 7 in three-dimensional space, as shown in FIG. Figure 8 shown.

[0046] like Figure 6 and Figure 7As shown, the robot also includes a camera 10 for recording the droplet operation process, a UV lamp 9 required for photocuring operation during the printing process, a waste liquid tank for collecting chemical experimental waste liquid, a chemical experimental waste trash can, and a recovery test tube for chemical products; the camera 10 is fixedly mounted on the ultrasonic suspension support. The UV lamp 9 is fixedly mounted on the ultrasonic suspension support. The UV lamp 9 can use a common UV lamp 9 that meets the power requirements of the experiment; the camera 10 can use an industrial camera that meets the experimental observation resolution requirements. The UV lamp 9 and the camera 10 can be installed on the ultrasonic suspension support through a 3D-printed fixed bracket 8, so that they can move synchronously with the acoustic tweezers actuator 6. The acoustic tweezers actuator 6, the fixed bracket 8, the UV lamp 9 and the camera 10 constitute a standing wave acoustic tweezers based on a phased array, which is used to capture the droplet 7 and suspend it, and realize the real-time control and change of the sound field intensity and standing wave position of the holographic acoustic tweezers under the signal control of the control unit. The real-time control and change method of the sound field intensity and standing wave position of the above-mentioned holographic acoustic tweezers is as follows: relying on the collaborative work of software and hardware, the shape of the transducer array of the double-hemispherical ultrasonic suspension manipulation end effector is defined in the software, including the position and direction of each ultrasonic transducer; and the amplitude, phase, frequency and other parameters of the output signal of each ultrasonic transducer are preset, and the driver board model is preset; through the visual simulation of the host computer, the sound field intensity and standing point position of the ultrasonic suspension acoustic tweezers sound field can be simulated in real time; the host computer is connected to the driver board, the driver board receives the signal sent by the host computer, and controls the amplitude and phase of each transducer of the ultrasonic suspension manipulation end effector.

[0047] The method for using the above robot may include the following steps:

[0048] The droplet injection pump 1 is used to control the syringe 2 to produce droplets 7 of appropriate size by setting the infusion volume, flow rate and flow velocity; the double-hemispherical acoustic tweezers are moved to a suitable position by the mobile chassis 5 and the robotic arm 4, so that the droplet 7 is controlled to focus due to the effect of the acoustic trap; the double-hemispherical acoustic tweezers are controlled to move by the mobile chassis 5 and the robotic arm 4, and the droplet 7 is placed on the droplet operation platform 3; the visual simulation of the host computer is used to control the sound field intensity and stationary point position of the holographic acoustic tweezers, thereby controlling the movement of the droplet 7 in three-dimensional space.

[0049] The above-mentioned robot controls the droplet generation system to generate droplets 7 through a control unit, and controls the droplet capture movement system to capture droplets 7 and transfer them to the droplet operation platform 3; the droplet operation platform 3 is used to receive droplets 7 to achieve 3D printing or chemical reactions; the control unit can control the amount and speed of droplets 7 extruded that meet the requirements; the droplet capture movement system can achieve fine movement and large-range movement of the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 through a movable robotic arm; therefore, in the entire process, the robot of the present invention can complete chemical and biological experimental operations without the need for experimenters, significantly reducing the time required for manual operation and improving the overall experimental efficiency; the robot operates the droplets 7, saving chemical reagents, saving the time required for reaction, and improving the reaction efficiency; the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 at the end of the robotic arm 4 can finely control and move the droplets 7, improve the reaction accuracy and stability, facilitate the control of the reaction, and the non-contact operation method can avoid contamination.

[0050] Compared with common chemical reaction robots, the robot of the present invention solves the problem of reagent waste by manipulating droplets 7, reduces the time required for chemical reactions by precisely manipulating droplets 7, and avoids contamination caused by contact between reagents and container walls using non-contact operations. Compared with microfluidic chips, the robot of the present invention uses holographic acoustic tweezers to suspend droplets 7 for operation, avoiding operational problems caused by increased viscosity due to small liquid volume, reducing the time required for chemical reactions, reducing the difficulty of experimental operations, and improving the safety, accuracy, and economy of droplet operations.

[0051] Therefore, the robot of the present invention can realize laboratory automated droplet operation, reduce reagent waste, avoid reagent contamination, and improve reaction safety; at the same time, it can reduce the time required for chemical reactions, improve chemical reaction efficiency, and accurately control the progress of reactions; in addition, the present invention can reduce the time required for manual operation, improve research efficiency, and improve the economy of the overall operation.

[0052] like Fig. 9 As shown, the embodiment of the present invention also provides an operation scheme of a laboratory non-contact droplet operation intelligent mobile robot, which specifically includes the following steps:

[0053] Step S100: After the experimenter has clarified the experimental requirements, he needs to select appropriate reagents according to the printing goals and application scenarios, and set the flow rate and flow rate of droplet 7 generation according to the reagent characteristics; the operator needs to enter the operation instructions in the computer in advance and select the operation mode; thereafter, the robot senses the experimental requirements, moves to the position of the droplet generation system with the assistance of the robotic arm 4, and adjusts to a suitable posture so that the central stationary point position of the sound field formed by the ultrasonic levitation acoustic tweezers actuator 6 is aligned with the needle tube mouth of the droplet 7 syringe 2, waiting for the droplet 7 to be squeezed out.

[0054] Step S200 : After the robotic arm 4 is stabilized, the syringe 2 slowly squeezes out a proper amount of droplets 7 with the assistance of the droplet injection pump 1 , and the droplets 7 are then captured by the acoustic field formed by the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 .

[0055] Step S300: After stable capture, the robotic arm 4 moves the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 with the sample droplet 7 suspended therein to the droplet operation platform 3 or the culture dish; and while keeping the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 upright, places the droplet 7 at a designated position on the platform or the culture dish;

[0056] Step S400: On the platform, under the real-time control of the host computer, the acoustic field intensity and stationary point position of the holographic acoustic tweezers change, controlling the droplet 7 to achieve microscale movement in three-dimensional space, completing refined droplet operations; after the droplet 7 is captured by the acoustic field, the ultrasonic wave generates high-frequency vibrations and microjets in the liquid, causing the liquid to produce microflow and mixing, so that the biochemical reagent droplet 7 always remains in a mixed state in the acoustic field; during the complete experimental process, the experimenter can use the UV lamp 9 and the industrial camera according to the experimental requirements.

[0057] By using the non-contact droplet manipulation intelligent mobile robot device and operation scheme for biochemical laboratories proposed in the present invention, precise, fast, contactless, programmable and cross-scale precision droplet manipulation of arbitrary trajectories and ultrasonic-based droplet accelerated mixing can be achieved.

[0058] The above-mentioned laboratory non-contact droplet operation intelligent mobile robot can also complete non-contact biological 3D printing, such as Fig.10 The specific operation method is as follows:

[0059] Step S101: The experimenter uses an auxiliary design tool to create a digital model of a biological structure and imports it into a host computer; the biochemical reagent used in this example is biological ink, which requires the experimenter to prepare in advance and ensure cell activity, and set printing parameters according to its properties; the robotic arm 4 moves to the initial position, so that the central stationary point position of the sound field formed by the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 is aligned with the needle tube mouth of the droplet 7 syringe 2, waiting for the droplet 7 to be squeezed out.

[0060] Step S201: Generate biological ink droplets 7 according to the above-mentioned robot system operation scheme; the acoustic tweezers actuator 6 of the droplet capture movement system captures the droplets 7.

[0061] Step S301: The droplet capture movement system moves the droplet 7 according to the model and accurately places it at the specified position on the culture dish; the control unit controls the irradiation time and irradiation intensity of the UV lamp 9 on the biological ink to construct a single-layer microstructure.

[0062] Step S401: by repeating the process of step S201 and step S301, the biological ink is deposited layer by layer to finally form a preset biological structure; the control unit controls the industrial camera to observe the experimental process of the biological ink in this embodiment.

[0063] During the printing process, the robot can monitor the state and position of the droplet 7 in real time to ensure the accuracy and stability of the printing. Through non-contact biological 3D printing operation, the risk of rejection reaction is reduced and the printing quality and efficiency are improved. Using the biochemical laboratory non-contact droplet operation intelligent mobile robot proposed by the present invention, accurate and pollution-free printing of biological tissues can be achieved, providing a solution for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

[0064] The above-mentioned laboratory non-contact droplet operation intelligent mobile robot can also perform non-contact chemical reactions, such as Fig.11 The specific operation method is as follows:

[0065] Step S102: The biochemical reagents used in this example are chemical reactants, which need to be prepared in advance and ensure that the reaction efficiency is stable.

[0066] Step S202: According to the above robot operation scheme, a chemical reactant droplet 7 is generated; the acoustic tweezer actuator 6 of the droplet capture movement system captures the droplet 7.

[0067] Step S302 : the droplet capture and movement system moves the droplet 7 and precisely places it at a designated position on the droplet operation platform 3 .

[0068] Step S402: Repeat the process of generating, moving and placing the droplet 7 in step S202 and step S302, so that different tiny reactant droplets 7 can be placed on the reaction platform at the same time; under the action of ultrasonic radiation, the droplets 7 are instantly mixed on the droplet operation platform 3. The control unit controls the industrial camera to observe the experimental process of the chemical reaction in this embodiment.

[0069] During the chemical reaction, the robot can monitor the state and position of the droplet 7 in real time to ensure the accuracy and stability of the chemical reaction; it can achieve rapid mixing and reaction of the droplet 7, thereby improving the purity and yield of the product. The non-contact droplet-operated intelligent mobile robot for biochemical laboratories proposed by the present invention has brought revolutionary efficiency improvement and quality optimization to the field of chemical synthesis.

[0070] The laboratory non-contact droplet operation intelligent mobile robot system design provided by the present invention is compatible with traditional biochemical laboratories. In addition to scenarios such as biological 3D printing and non-contact chemical reactions, the robot provided by the present invention has the potential for upgrading and customization, and the acoustic field parameters and the control strategy of the robotic arm 4 can be adjusted according to specific experimental requirements. This design can meet different experimental requirements and improve the flexibility and scalability of the experiment.

[0071] The non-contact droplet manipulation intelligent mobile robot for biochemical laboratories proposed by the present invention has good compatibility with the existing biochemical experimental environment, has a stable ultrasonic suspension effect, is not affected by the external environment, and has a good suspension effect. Compared with traditional biochemical laboratory tools and technologies, acoustic tweezers show their unique advantages in many aspects.

[0072] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A laboratory non-contact droplet manipulation intelligent mobile robot based on acoustic tweezers, characterized in that: It includes a droplet generation system, a droplet capture and movement system, a droplet operation platform, and a control unit; The droplet generation system is used to generate droplets; the droplet capture and movement system includes a movable mechanical arm and an acoustic tweezer actuator installed at the end of the movable mechanical arm, which is used to capture the droplets generated by the droplet generation system and transfer them to the droplet operation platform in a suspended state; The droplet operation platform is used to receive the droplets transferred by the droplet capture and movement system; The control unit is connected to the droplet generation system and the droplet capture movement system by signal, and is used to control the actions of the droplet generation system and the droplet capture movement system.

2. The robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The droplet generation system includes a droplet injection pump and a syringe; The syringe is installed on the droplet injection pump; the droplet injection pump is used to drive the syringe to form droplets at the end of the needle of the syringe; the needle is covered with a capillary glass tube whose end is bent by heat treatment to reduce the capillary force of the needle outlet on the droplets, thereby facilitating the acoustic tweezers actuator to capture the droplets.

3. The robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The acoustic tweezers actuator is a double-hemispherical acoustic tweezers composed of an ultrasonic suspension support, an ultrasonic transducer array, a control drive system and a host computer; The ultrasonic suspension support is fixedly mounted on the end of the movable mechanical arm, is made of resin material by 3D printing, and has two hemispherical surfaces arranged opposite to each other; The ultrasonic transducer array is mounted on the inner spherical surface of the two hemispherical surfaces to form a sound field for capturing droplets; The control drive system is connected to the ultrasonic transducer array signal and is used to control the ultrasonic transducer array to output a sound field signal; The host computer is connected to the control drive system signal, and is used to generate control signals with different phases and send them to the control drive system, so as to realize real-time control of the intensity and position of the sound field of the holographic acoustic tweezers.

4. The robot according to claim 3, characterized in that: The ultrasonic transducer array includes 36 ultrasonic transducers distributed on each hemisphere; the ultrasonic transducers are used to generate sinusoidal ultrasonic waves with a frequency of 40 kHz.

5. The robot according to claim 3, characterized in that: It also includes a camera for recording the droplet operation process, and the camera is fixedly installed on the ultrasonic levitation support.

6. The robot according to claim 3, characterized in that: It also includes a UV lamp required for light curing operation during the printing process, and the UV lamp is fixedly installed on the ultrasonic suspension support.

7. The robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The movable mechanical arm comprises a movable chassis and a mechanical arm installed on the top of the movable chassis.

8. The robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The droplet operation platform is a mesh structure made of a fiberglass board cut by laser into squares with a side length of 1 mm, and a super-hydrophobic coating is coated on the surface of the mesh structure.

9. The robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The droplet operation platform is a culture dish used for bio-printing and biological experiment operations.

10. The robot according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that: It also includes a waste liquid cylinder for collecting chemical experiment waste liquid, a chemical experiment waste trash can and a recovery test tube for chemical products.

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