SBIR Phase I: AI robotic archival and retrieval system

这个小企业研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发具有人工智能（AI）的机器人技术，以改善病理学实践。病理学实验室每年产生4.14亿张载玻片和2亿块组织块，代表着52亿B美元的市场。法律要求这些样本存档10年。最近的创新集中在样本收集、样本处理的自动化、病理学信息向医疗记录的报告和传输方面的改进，但目前病理学样本的手动存储容易出错和效率低下。拟议的技术将推进机器人系统，以自动化病理切片和组织块的存储和检索过程，从而更快，更准确地获取重要的生物标本。这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种机器人机制，从载玻片托盘中拾取载玻片，并将其运送到档案柜中，以便与数字图书馆保持一致。该解决方案将有一个界面，将机器人存档系统与自动化软件和显微镜载玻片数字成像系统集成在一起。存档和检索系统有一个机器人电机连接到传送带旋转通过幻灯片和一个软件组件有两个元素：图形用户界面（GUI）和底层架构。 该项目有三个目标：1）原型机器人系统设计; 2）用户界面开发和部署策略;以及3）集成硬件/软件系统的模拟。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be to develop a robotic technology with artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the practice of pathology. Pathology laboratories generate 414 million slides and 200 million tissue blocks annually, representing a market of $5.2 B. Those samples are legally required to be archived 10 years. Recent innovations have focused on improvements in specimen collection, automation of sample processing, reporting and transmission of pathology information to medical records, but currently manual storage of pathology specimens is prone to errors and inefficiencies. The proposed technology will advance a robotic system to automate the storage and retrieval process of pathology slides and tissue blocks, enabling faster, more accurate access to important biological specimens. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a robotic mechanism to pick glass slides from slide trays and transport them to archival cabinets for storage aligned with a digital library. The solution will have an interface that integrates the robotic archival system with automated software and digital imaging systems for microscopic slides. The archival and retrieval system has a robotic motor attached to a conveyor to rotate through the slides and a software component with two elements; the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the underlying architecture. The project has three goals: 1) A prototype robotic system design; 2) User interface development and deployment strategy; and 3) Simulation of integrated hardware/ software system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.