Programmable robotic arm with fully integrated electronics able to operate with high precision in four degrees of freedom as standard
Imix has announced a new version of its compact Katana lab robot configured and programmed to automate the loading and unloading of any centrifuge system.
Katana is a programmable robotic arm with fully integrated electronics able to operate with high precision in four degrees of freedom as standard.
In adapting the Katana robot for this application the system had to recognise that a centrifuge rotor rarely stops in the same place.
To allow for this the Katana robot was programmed to identify the orientation of the rotor by incorporating a small CCD camera on its gripper.
The gripper with camera also enabled identification of the orientation of the tube within the rack or the rotor allowing the system to perfectly pick and place tubes into and out of the centrifuge.
After centrifugation, the robotic system automatically and precisely re-racks the tubes back to their original positions.
Through intelligent automation the Katana system both speeds the process of centrifuge tube loading and unloading, and eliminates centrifuge tubes mix-ups allowing technicians to continue with more rewarding and valuable tasks.
