Micro-scale robotic task control and automation

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In recent years, there has been tremendous interest within the medical and biological research communities as their research into the development of transgenic organisms, drug testing on small groups of cells or single cells, and other activities related to genetics has developed. It has become evident that such tasks, such as injection of material into cells for example, must be carried out on a large scale to keep pace with the needs of the medical and biological research communities. Currently, much of this processing is carried out using manual operations. To address this concern, the research work proposed here is directed towards the automation of micro-scale tasks using robotic technology. This researcher has a lengthy history in research in robotics in key areas of relevance to micro-scale task execution. These areas include robotic force control, contact task execution, design of closed-loop controllers for robots with prescribed closed-loop performance, investigation of stability and performance of robotic contact task controls. We will investigate key research areas which now stand in the way of the automation of micro-scale tasks involving contact with biological materials. Interaction of robotic devices with micro-biological specimens easily results in failure if the biological material is disrupted due to poor control of the devices contacting cells. We will design controllers which can reliably control forces at the micro-Newton level, allowing reliable and consistent insertion of material into cells. Vision control coupled with inner-loop force and position controls will be designed and tested which can be used to automate the process. Utilizing robust control design methodologies, controllers will be designed to allow these robotic operations to be conducted in the presence of substantial dynamic parameter uncertainty in the biological material mechanical properties, while achieving good closed-loop performance. Further, methods will be developed to automatically position biological materials for automatic robotic processing. Extensive experimental investigations will test and verify the dynamic behaviour of these methodologies.