SBIR Phase II: A Modular and Reconfigurable Liquid-handling Toolkit for Laboratory Research

这个小型企业创新研究阶段(SBIR)第二阶段项目将开发一个高度可定制、可编程的系统，允许研究人员在广泛的用例中编程和运行实验。物理和生命科学研发人员经常使用未连接的台式设备手动进行重复的、持续时间较长的实验。一个量身定制的灵活自动化系统将服务于多个行业，包括化工、特种聚合物和生物技术。目标是优化研究人员完成研究所需的灵活性，同时将他们在设备和开发定制上的支出降至最低。该系统将把在大型制造设施中发现的自动化的好处带到实验室台式规模，这方面包括(1)将研究人员的时间与他们的生产力分离，(2)使现代编程方法能够直接在先前编程的协议的基础上进行协作和构建。这将加速企业的研发。这个项目的智力价值是开发了一个系统，并将其商业化，使研究人员能够访问实验室协议自动化。该系统将通过解决系统集成中最困难的元素(通信计时、命令计时、用户界面、数据持久性)来实现自动化，因此研究人员只需关注协议。该系统硬件为多种类型的台式实验室设备统一了不同类型的输入和输出(I/O)。软件前端为连接的设备网络提供可访问的Python应用程序编程接口(API)。软件应用处理用户定制脚本的命令排队和执行。这些功能结合在一起使用，形成了即插即用的实验室设备的灵活网络，这些设备可以相互无缝通信，以执行复杂的协议。研究目标是1)建立健壮且可扩展的软件和硬件架构，以及2)开发、测试和实施资产以加速用户采用。预计的结果是一个系统，使研究人员能够从设备库中选择任意组合的台式实验室设备，将设备配置为定制设置，选择和修改模板协议，并在几分钟内执行专门的协议。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a highly customizable, programmable system that allows researchers to program and run experiments across wide-ranging use cases. Physical- and life-science R&D personnel frequently conduct repetitive, long-duration experiments manually with unconnected benchtop equipment. A tailored flexible automation system would serve multiple industries, including chemicals, specialty polymers, and biotechnology. The goal is to optimize the flexibility that researchers need to complete their studies while minimizing the efforts they expend on equipment and development customization. This system will bring the benefits of automation found in large-scale manufacturing facilities to the laboratory benchtop-scale in terms of (1) decoupling researchers’ time from their productivity and (2) enabling modern programmatic approaches for collaborating and building directly upon previously programmed protocols. This will accelerate the research and development enterprise. The intellectual merit of this project is the development and commercialization of a system that makes laboratory protocol automation accessible to researchers. The system will make automation accessible by addressing the most difficult elements of system integration (communication timing, command timing, a user-interface, data persistence) so that researchers need only focus on the protocols. The system hardware unifies the disparate types of input and output (I/O) for multiple types of benchtop lab equipment. The software front-end provides an accessible Python application programming interface (API) for the network of connected equipment. The software application handles command queuing and execution for a user’s customized script. Used in combination, these capabilities result in a flexible network of plug-and-play laboratory devices that seamlessly communicate with each other to execute complex protocols. The research objectives are to 1) establish a robust and scalable software and hardware architecture, and 2) develop, test, and implement assets to accelerate user adoption. The anticipated result is a system that enables a researcher to select any combination of benchtop lab equipment from the device library, configure the equipment into a custom setup, select and modify template protocols, and execute specialized protocols in a matter of minutes.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.