(1009-B) Do-it-yourself kit for laboratory automation using the example of a media exchange for an organoid culture

Today, the automation of complex work processes requires specific technical expertise. In addition, there are extended requirements for automation that go beyond increasing throughput. Process quality and the relief of laboratory staff, for example at weekends, can also be a motivation for automating workflows.
For many processes, however, application-specific automation is not economical.
Based on these issues a generic do-it-yourself integration kit based on the Process Execution Engine of ASCon was developed. The implementation of a process flow is done by modeling with the help of building blocks and no code programming. Individual objects or processes are modeled and stored as a digital twin. The process is built so generically that each value can be parameterized. This means that the same process can take place on different plates, different wells, but also different devices.
The development was based on a real example in the laboratory, namely a media exchange process with 96 microtiter plates. Existing laboratory equipment (Liconic Incubator, BioTek-Cytation plate reader, mobile lab robot) with manually used infrastructure (sterile workbench) and a liquid handling system based on industrial automation components were developed and tested. In this use case, a liquid handler was built from various individual components. A “Tecan Cavro Centris“ pump and “Jenny LINAX“ axes were controlled via RS232, RS458 and TCP/IP. It was important here that the volumes and each well on a plate remained parameterizable and could thus be individually adapted in each run. In addition, our mobile robot “Kevin” and the plate reader were controlled using SiLA 2 interfaces (developed by Fraunhofer IPA). In this scenario, parallel processes, various devices and individual components had to be modeled and controlled. Also it was important that the biological process continued to function. The temperature in the incubator had to be checked, the plate was only allowed to be transported with a lid and the liquid handler was set up in a clean bench. In addition to the above structure, the DIY automation kit offers also interfaces to the outside world (via REST, HTTP 2, MQTT, Modbus, etc.).
The DIY automation kit allows an integration of automation workflows on these different levels without specific technological knowledge. The system is programmed by parameterizing the workflows and transferring them to the technical systems via the process execution engine. In addition to process programming, process modeling is also performed, with full traceability and changeability of the processes.