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

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛/商业影响将开发一个台式液体处理工具包，以提高物理和生命科学实验室的研究效率。仅2016年，大学科学和工程项目的可移动研究设备支出就达到21亿美元，预计还会增长。建议的工具包将增加科学领域许多学科的研究人员的产出和效率，在这些学科中，大量的时间和人力资源投入到高度重复的协议中。使用该技术，没有机器人和编程经验的研究人员可以从工具包中选择设备，创建自定义配置，然后通过基于图标的用户界面执行专门的协议。数字化协议可以重新运行或共享以验证结果并传播过程参数，从而促进实验室之间的协作并提高可重复性。该项目的智能优点是开发了一个模块化和可重构的液体处理工具包。该工具包由独立的设备组成，包括阀门和泵，一个同步设备动作和存储记录数据的中央集线器，以及一个直观的用户界面。研究目标包括：1)开发和验证工具包中不可或缺的设备；(2)设备、集线器、用户界面的测试与集成；(3)跨多个科学学科进行可用性测试。为了实现这些目标，必须完成设备的机械设计，必须组装设备，必须开发和验证系统范围的通信协议，必须开发用户界面和web应用程序。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a benchtop liquid-handling toolkit to increase research productivity in physical- and life-science laboratories. Movable research equipment expenditures in university science and engineering projects were $2.1 billion in 2016 alone and are anticipated to grow.The proposed toolkit will increase the output and effectiveness of researchers across many disciplines in science where significant time and personnel resources are devoted to highly repetitive protocols. With the proposed technology, a researcher without experience in robotics and programming may select devices from the toolkit, create a custom configuration, and then execute specialized protocols through an icon-based user interface. Digitized protocols can be re-run or shared to verify results and disseminate process parameters, thereby facilitating collaboration and enhancing repeatability among labs. The intellectual merit of this project is the development of a modular and reconfigurable liquid-handling toolkit. The toolkit consists of discrete devices including valves and pumps, a central hub synchronizing device actions and storing recorded data, and an intuitive user interface. The research objectives include: 1) the development and validation of the devices integral to the toolkit; (2) the testing and integration of the devices, hub, and user interface; and (3) conducting usability tests across multiple scientific disciplines. To meet these objectives, mechanical design of the devices must be completed, the devices must be assembled, a system-wide communication protocol must be developed and validated, and a user interface and web application must be developed.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.