Your laboratory robot Kevin should change that. How does he do that?
Brode: The idea behind Kevin is to automate processes without having to make costly changes to the existing infrastructure. There are exciting examples of this in other industries. Another aspect is better utilization of the sometimes expensive equipment. Thanks to Kevin's collaboration, these can also be used at night. Kevin uses a collaborative robotic arm from Precise Automation, which we mounted on a mobile platform developed by Fraunhofer. It is also equipped with a camera, an image processing program and a learning algorithm. In principle, it is a transport robot that, for example, takes samples from device A to device B. This enables him to network the different devices in the laboratory and to implement an automation process that is not possible in a rigid system.
What added value does Kevin offer – especially in the current situation?
Brode: If an employee has started a process during the day and brought the cells into the incubator in the evening, it may be that a media change has to be made or a sample taken at night. Thanks to Kevin, the worker doesn't have to be in the lab himself at night. The robot can drive autonomously to the incubator, remove the cell culture plate and bring it to the pipettor where a media change is made. Or a sample is taken and placed in an analyzer. Then Kevin brings the cells back to the incubator.
Laboratory workers are often busy in the morning with preparation steps that cost them a lot of time. These are rather repetitive tasks such as labeling tubes or preparing samples. Kevin can handle such tasks well at night. So the prepared vials are already ready when the worker come to the laboratory in the morning so that they can start work directly on the value-adding work, such as testing. Of course, this makes all the more sense during the corona pandemic. Thanks to Kevin, the use of laboratory equipment can be extended to the night, increasing the throughput of PCR tests and perhaps avoiding bottlenecks – without employees having to work a night shift.