HYFLAM - A Hyper-Flexible Work Cell for Biochemical Laboratory Automation

In our experiment we will build a hyper-flexible cell with a dexterous robot hand that performs a set of complex manipulation operations that arise in a bacteriological or chemical laboratory. Working with some of the deadliest microorganisms on the planet in a laboratory setting is a highly-skilled job where accidents can be catastrophic. Microbiologists need a better solution than manual intervention for performing risky tasks on their samples. The aim of HYFLAM is to experimentally demonstrate that robotic technology can provide intelligent manipulation through autonomous and tele-operated techniques. The consortium is composed of the University of Hamburg (UHAM) in Germany, the Shadow Robot Company Ltd (SHA) and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the UK. The University of Hamburg will contribute its expertise in robotics and manipulation. It is planned to use the modern anthropomorphic robot hand of the project partner Shadow Robot Company Ltd. As a potential end-user of such a system, the HPA will provide the setup of the real scenarios where dexterous manipulation systems would provide a real benefit. Within our planned research, we want to investigate how the sophisticated robot hand from SHA can be used to perform the following operations:

[this should be an item list]

grasp and place the required objects(e.g. cell culture flasks, eggs, ampoules ) perform handover operations to lab workers expose objects to lab workers for cooperative actions perform manipulation actions independently (e.g. aliquoting liquids into centrifuge tubes)

A mockup will be created and a scenario will be implemented that shows the benefits of our system.

• Images

	Size	Modified
Hyflam_bulb.jpg	851 KB	2012/03/19
Hyflam_egg1.jpg	31 KB	2012/03/19
Hyflam_flask.jpg	346 KB	2012/03/19
Hyflam_labor.jpg	14 KB	2012/03/19
Hyflam_pipette.png	192 KB	2012/03/19