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/商业潜力将是开发一种带有人工智能(AI)的机器人技术，以改善病理实践。病理实验室每年产生4.14亿张幻灯片和2亿块组织块，相当于52亿美元的市场。这些样本在法律上要求存档10年。最近的创新集中在标本收集、标本处理自动化、报告和将病理信息传输到病历方面，但目前人工存储病理标本容易出错和效率低下。拟议的技术将推进机器人系统，使病理切片和组织块的存储和检索过程自动化，从而能够更快、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，从幻灯片托盘中挑选玻璃幻灯片，并将它们运送到档案柜进行存储，与数字图书馆保持一致。该解决方案将有一个界面，将机器人档案系统与自动软件和显微幻灯片的数字成像系统集成在一起。档案和检索系统有一个连接到传送带上的机器人马达在幻灯片上旋转，以及一个带有两个元素的软件组件：图形用户界面(GUI)和底层架构。该项目有三个目标：1)机器人系统原型设计；2)用户界面开发和部署策略；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。

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.