Cell Culture Container Cap Position Indicator for Sterile Automation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In cell culture tasks, maintaining a sterilized state and accurately confirming the closed state of culture containers is challenging due to unclear markings and the mechanical handling by robot arms, which can cause contamination and wear debris.
Innovation Solution
A cell culture container with a protrusion on the cap and a position indicator on the container body, allowing visual confirmation of the closed state and reduced torque requirements for opening, along with a robot hand system that uses an imager to verify the cap's position before opening, preventing contamination and wear debris.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a robot arm is used to handle cell culture containers, then work efficiency is improved, but maintaining a sterilized state becomes difficult due to potential contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into a sterilized work area and a non-sterilized external area, with the robot arm confined to the sterilized work area. Container transfer occurs through a sealed interface (pass box) that maintains sterilization boundaries, allowing automated handling while preventing contamination.
Solution Approach 2:
A pass box serves as an intermediary device between the sterilized work area and the external environment. It enables container transfer while maintaining the sterilized state through sealed mechanisms, allowing the robot arm to operate efficiently without direct exposure to contamination risks.
2Ease of manufacture
If general cell culture containers are used, then ease of manufacture is improved, but visual confirmation of the closed state becomes difficult due to unclear markings
Solution Approach 1:
The cap is designed with a color-changing ring that visually indicates the closed state of the container. When the cap is properly closed, the ring displays a specific color or pattern that is easily detectable by the robot's imaging system, providing clear visual confirmation without requiring special container designs.
3Ease of operation
If the robot hand applies large torque to open the cap, then the opening task is completed, but wear debris is generated and the sterilized state is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces direct mechanical torque application with an optical detection method. The imaging device captures images of the cap's position indicator, and the control device processes these images to determine when the cap is fully open. This substitution eliminates the need for high-torque mechanical actions that generate wear debris, while still achieving the cap opening task through precise positional control.
4Ease of operation
If the robot hand applies large grip force to open the cap, then the opening task is completed, but the robot hand is subjected to large load
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces force-based cap opening with image-based detection. By capturing images of the cap's position indicator and analyzing its rotational position, the system determines cap opening status without requiring the robot hand to apply large grip forces or torques, thereby reducing the mechanical load on the robot hand while maintaining operational effectiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
A bottle includes a body, a cap mounted to a cap neck of the body. The cap has an outer peripheral portion which is provided with a protrusion. Around the cap, there is provided a position indicator indicating whether the cap is at a correctly closed position, based on the positional relationship between the protrusion and the position indicator.