Abstract
Cell cultivation in life science laboratories is very time consuming due to the increasing amount of required cell lines The process of cell cultivation includes several steps like seeding, renewing cell culture medium, microscopy of cells and checking environmental parameters like temperature, humidity and CO2 content of the ambient air. Control of environmental parameters for optimal growth conditions is achieved by placing cells inside closed incubators. Opening and closing, as well as moving cell containers manually in and out of incubators for microscopy or other tasks can be detrimental to environmental conditions inside the incubator as well as to cell growth in general. In the context of this work, the stem cell proliferation process including cell culture medium change and phase contrast microscopy is automated by an X-Z-portal robot located inside the incubator itself. The portal robot is vertically mounted in front of the incubator shelves. A novel robotic end effector is presented which has two individually controllable telescopic parallel arms mounted on top of a rotating base which enables handling of T75 and microplate cell cultivation containers as well as actuation of push to drain mechanisms and additional modules for cell culture medium change. The proposed end effector concept provides versatility while minimizing footprint and maximizing serviceable incubator shelf space.
