Efficient application of dual-arm robots in analytical measurements using motion frames

Life science laboratories are characterized by a high degree of automation. Especially in high-throughput screening applications, a multitude of automation systems have been developed. An increasing demand of automation solutions is still seen in the field of analytical measurements. Complex sample preparation procedures often result in semi-automated or island automated proprietary systems using single arm robots. Furthermore, the sample preparation processes are often changing: different kinds of labware, samples and procedures like pipetting, shaking, feeding the autosampler of the measurement instruments etc. will be used. Dual-arm robots with a high degree of freedom are a promising solution to perform precisely structured processes similar to a human operator. In the study presented an industrial dual-arm robot has been integrated into an automated measurement system to perform sample preparation steps and subsequential measurements using mass spectrometry coupled with gas and liquid chromatography. Online robot programming (teaching) is a common method to generate robot motions; but the flexibility and reusability of these motions are limited. To meet this challenge, the motions of the dual-arm robot were designed using motion frames in order to make the measurement processes more flexible and reusable. A motion frame consists of a sequence of motion steps, which are determined by a set of variables. A motion frame can be easily shifted in different areas. This enables an efficient programming to increase the throughput in automated analytical measurement systems: several measurement applications using mass spectrometry were realized.