Empty Vessel Holder Detection and Storage in Automated Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automated systems for processing biological samples face inefficiencies due to the presence of empty vessel holders, which occupy space, slow down workflows, and burden computational systems with unnecessary identification events, especially in high-throughput analysis environments.
Innovation Solution
An automated system with an empty vessel holder detection unit that discriminates between empty and filled holders, initiating the transfer of empty holders to a storage module, thereby reducing their presence in the transport medium and optimizing system performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a sufficient quantity of vessel holders is employed to ensure proper workflow, then the system can maintain continuous operation and avoid idle time, but the number of empty vessel holders occupying space and burdening the transport medium increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically discards empty vessel holders from the transport medium by detecting their presence and diverting them to a storage module. This allows the system to maintain workflow continuity by having ready supplies of vessel holders while continuously removing empty ones from circulation, thus resolving the contradiction between maintaining sufficient quantity and reducing waste.
Solution Approach 2:
The detection unit provides feedback about empty vessel holders to the control unit, which then activates the transfer unit to remove them. This closed-loop feedback system enables the system to dynamically adjust to vessel holder availability, maintaining workflow continuity while minimizing the accumulation of empty holders.
2Reliability
If empty vessel holders are frequently identified at identification points, then the system can maintain accurate tracking of all moving elements, but the computational system is slowed down by unnecessary identification events
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts empty vessel holders from the main transport medium before they reach identification points by using the detection unit to identify them earlier and the transfer unit to remove them to a storage module. This extraction prevents empty holders from entering the identification and database lookup process, maintaining tracking reliability for actual samples while eliminating unnecessary computational overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The detection unit acts as an intermediary between the transport medium and the main identification system. It pre-identifies empty vessel holders and triggers their removal, serving as a filter that protects the main identification system from unnecessary processing of empty holders while maintaining overall system tracking accuracy.
3Device complexity
If the transport medium carries both empty and filled vessel holders, then the system can simplify the transport structure, but the efficiency of sample delivery to work cells is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the transport medium into two distinct streams: one for filled vessel holders that continue to work cells, and another for empty vessel holders that are diverted to storage. The detection unit and transfer unit create this segmentation at identification points, separating the two types of holders to optimize the transport of actual samples while maintaining a relatively simple overall transport structure.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to an automated system for processing vessels containing biological samples, the system including vessel holders, a transport medium for transporting the vessel holders between the components of the system, a work cell for processing, a storage module for empty vessel holders, wherein the storage module is connected to the transport medium, a robotic manipulator for engaging and/or disengaging the vessels with empty vessel holders, an empty vessel holder transfer unit for introducing empty vessel holders into or retrieving them from the storage module, and an empty vessel holder detection unit, including an empty vessel holder detector for discriminating between filled and empty vessel holders as well as a transfer initiator configured to initiate the introduction or re-introduction of an empty vessel holder detected in or on the transport medium into the storage module by the empty vessel holder transfer unit. The invention further provides a corresponding method.