PXRR AUTOMOUNTER PROGRAM

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。目标：进一步发展机器人用户群体是自动机器人项目的首要目标。我们的计划是推广和运用X12-B弯曲磁体设备进行筛选和X29强波动束收集最佳样品数据的联合使用机制。试钻已经证明了该方法的潜力和成功，并且ID Quick Project方案可以提供当天的波动波束时间。充分利用这一绝佳机会需要在我们的用户中进一步推广。第二个程序化目标是说服晶体学家利用PXRR Mail-In程序准备与机器人兼容的标本。如果更广泛地使用，自动标本处理和远程波束线操作的新功能的结合使用将增加邮寄程序的容量。与此同时，它将减少对员工的需求，这些员工现在正在推进该计划，同时在设施中工作。其他计划目标是继续在我们的常客中推广自动驾驶功能，收集用户反馈，对我们的px操作员和用户进行更广泛的培训，以及与基于NIGMS的实验人员加强合作。自动化相关的研究和开发活动以及机器人及其软件控制的持续改进是在推进光束线自动化的更广泛背景下进行的。我们的目标是最终在所有PXRR设施中提供可靠且易于使用的标本处理程序，使访问和远程工作的研究人员能够将这些机器用作衍射仪的组成部分。2005年，我们的工作逐渐从设计和工程转向社区服务。虽然工作继续在制造一个额外的自动售货机，已经安装的单位已经越来越多地移交给我们的用户基础。自2005年中期以来，X12-B波束线上的第一台自动显示器已投入常规使用，目前约有50%的X12-B用户使用。机械故障是非常罕见的，自2005年10月以来，已经造成3例用户标本丢失，故障率低于1%。尽管我们的自动驾驶汽车的机械性能提高了对该计划的接受度，但我们发现，如果培训和所需设备的障碍降低，用户最有可能参与。租借工具集非常受欢迎，因为它们允许我们的用户在投资新硬件之前测试设备。我们还投入了资源进行推广和培训计划，旨在告知我们的用户社区汽车爱好者对其程序的潜在好处。在这里查看：http://www.px.nsls.bnl.gov/robot/robot.html操作上，在波束线X12-B上的自动成型机已经发展成为我们努力将偶极子波束线与波束线X25和X29上的插入设备集成的关键工具。我们的许多用户选择在X12-B自动成型机上筛选晶体，然后将最好的样品带到X29进行完整的数据收集。在一个值得注意的例子中，一个用户组在X12-B上筛选了五种未知结构的60多个晶体，然后将每种类型中最好的转移到X29以进一步收集数据。在这个小组离开布鲁克海文实验室之前，他们解决了两个新的结构，剩下的三个结构后来在他们的家乡机构得到了解决，所有这些都是在预定访问X29的七个小时内收集的数据。计划：由于我们目前成功地将自动贴片机作为NSLS晶体学社区的常规工具，以及最终为所有PXRR设施配备低温晶体贴片机的雄心，我们通过追求研究和发展目标以及技术改进来补充项目和社区发展活动。正在进行的研究和开发工作将导致在X12-C光束线上安装已经经过台架测试的第三台PXRR自动仪，作为一个准自主和自对准的单元，完全独立于现有的衍射仪。虽然这种结构在X12-C上是由支持其衍射仪和探测器的运动表的特殊性所强制要求的，但它预测了我们建议用于未来X25自动样品贴片机的方法，该方法不会干扰振动敏感的最终光学元件和高精度主轴，当其主光束重新聚焦到微光束时，将需要高精度主轴。我们预计，结合机械工程，位置传感和系统控制软件将是普遍感兴趣的现在以及未来的仪器发展。为了支持PXRR工作人员正在开发和测试的远程数据收集，我们已经朝着为我们的汽车处理器开发交互式状态处理程序迈出了第一步。完全开发后，它不仅可以让实验人员了解机器人的当前状态及其有效载荷，而且还可以在程序故障、需要远程重新连接或电源和机械故障等意外事件发生时提供详细的逃生和恢复路径。虽然预想的状态图分析工具的首要目标是保存标本，但它也将帮助设施运营商在正常和恢复条件下做出决策。一旦在机器人规模上实现，这些处理和可视化物理信息的软件方法可以很容易地扩展到包括额外的设施子系统。3D机器视觉的结合是一个长期的目标。一系列广泛的技术改进将维持和改进机器人辅助数据收集。这些措施包括通过构建关键备件、精炼操作协议以及迅速将操作经验转化为硬件和软件升级来进一步加强系统可靠性。提高自动晶体定心的速度和精度是一项正在进行的工作，包括软件改进和光学升级。我们正在开发从一个球到另一个球的晶体分类协议，我们正在测试加速晶体安装/拆卸周期时间的方法，我们正在评估数据代码读取器的性能。重要意义：在X29的PXRR设施中，强烈的波动源衍生光束，以及在X25完成升级后预期的更明亮和更紧密的聚焦光束，使这些设施成为PXRR用户社区最受追捧的设施。支持良好、可靠且易于使用的自动机床可以通过两种方式为插入设备设施的最佳利用率和高生产率做出贡献。弯曲磁力线的机器人帮助工作人员和来访的研究人员确定值得和需要波动光束的实验。在波动生产线上的机器人增加了设备的吞吐量。上述规划、研究和发展以及技术目标旨在通过提高实验的速度和质量来支持最佳PXRR设施的最佳使用。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Objectives ¿ It is the first objective of the automounter program to develop further the robot user community. Our plan is to promote and exercise mechanisms for the combined use of the X12-B bending magnet facility for screening, and the intense X29 undulator beam for collecting data on best-in-lot specimens. Exploratory runs have demonstrated the potential and success of the approach, and the ID Quick Project scheme can provide undulator beam time for same-day. The full exploitation of this excellent opportunity needs further promotion among our users. A second programmatic objective is to convince crystallographers that take advantage of the PXRR Mail-In program to prepare robot-compatible specimens. If more broadly used, the combined use of automatic specimen handling and emerging capabilities in remote beam line operation would increase the capacity of the mail-in program. At the same time, it will diminish the demands on the staff that now advances the program while working right at the facilities. Additional programmatic goals are the continued promotion of automounter capabilities among our frequent visitors, the collection of user feedback, the more extensive training of our PX-operators and users, and the increasing collaboration with the NIGMS based experimenters. Automounter related research and development activities as well as the continuing improvements of the robots and their software control are pursued in the broader context of advancing beam line automation. It is our ambition eventually to provide reliable and easy-to-use specimen handlers at all of the PXRR facilities at a level of perfection where visiting and remotely working investigators would use the machines as integral parts of the diffractometers. Results ¿ In 2005 our automounter effort gradually shifted from design and engineering to community outreach. Although work continues on the fabrication of an additional automounter, the already installed units have been increasingly turned over to our user base. The first automounter at beamline X12-B has been in routine use since mid 2005, and is currently used by approximately 50% of X12-B users. Mechanical failures are very rare, and have been responsible for three lost user specimens since October 2005, a failure rate under 1%. Although the mechanical performance of our automounters has led to increased acceptance of the program, we have found that users are most likely to participate if training and required equipment barriers are lowered. Loaner tool sets have been very popular, since they allow our users to test the equipment before investing in new hardware. We have also invested resources in an outreach and training program designed to inform our user community of the potential benefits of the automounters to their programs. Check it out here: http://www.px.nsls.bnl.gov/robot/robot.html Operationally, the automounter at beam line X12-B has developed into a crucial tool in our effort to integrate dipole beam lines with the insertion devices at beam lines X25 and X29. Many of our users choose to screen crystals on the X12-B automounter, and then take the best-in-lot specimens to X29 for full data collection. In one notable example, a user group screened over sixty crystals of five unknown structures at X12-B, and then transferred only the best of each type to X29 for further data collection. Two novel structures were solved before this group left Brookhaven Laboratory, and the remaining three structures were later solved at their home institution, all from data collected in seven hours of scheduled access to X29. Plans ¿ Motivated by our current success with introducing automounters as routine tools for the crystallographic community at the NSLS, and by the ambition eventually to equip all PXRR facilities with cryogenic crystal mounters, we complement programmatic and community development activities by pursuing research and development goals, as well as technical improvements. An ongoing research and development effort will lead to the installation of an already bench-tested third PXRR automounter at beam line X12-C as a quasi-autonomous and self-aligning unit entirely separate from the existing diffractometer. While this architecture is mandated at X12-C by the particularities of the kinematical table supporting its diffractometer and detector, it anticipates the method we propose to use for a future X25 automatic sample mounter that will not interfere with the vibration-sensitive final optical elements and high-precision spindle that will be required when its primary beam is refocused into a micro-beam. We anticipate that the combined mechanical engineering, position sensing, and systems control software will be of general interest now as well as for future instrument developments. In support of remote data collections that are just now being developed and tested by PXRR staff, we have taken first steps towards the development of an interactive status handler for our automounters. When fully developed it will not only keep experimenters informed about the current status of the robot and its payload, but it also will provide detailed escape and recovery pathways when unexpected events occur such as program glitches, required remote re-connections, or power and mechanical failures. While it is the first goal of the envisioned state-diagram analysis tool to preserve specimens, it also will assist facility operators in decision making under normal and recovery conditions. Once implemented at the robot scale, these software methods of processing and visualizing physical information could readily be extended to include additional facility sub-sytems. The incorporation of 3D machine vision is a long-term goal. A broad array of technical improvements will sustain and improve robot-assisted data collection. These include measures to strengthen systems reliability further by building critical spares, refining operational protocols, and promptly translating operational experience into hardware and software upgrades. The improvement of the speed and accuracy of automatic crystal centering is ongoing work, including both software improvements and optical upgrades. We are developing protocols to sort crystals from puck to puck, we are testing methods to accelerate the crystal mounting/dismounting cycle time, and we are evaluating the performance of data-code readers. Significance ¿ The intense undulator-derived beam at the premier PXRR facility at X29, and the even more brilliant and tighter focused beams expected at X25 on completion of its upgrades, make these facilities the most sought after by the PXRR user community. Well-supported, reliable, and easy-to-use automounters can contribute in two ways to the optimal utilization and high productivity at insertion device facilities. Robots at bending magnet lines help staff and visiting researchers identify experiments that deserve and require undulator beam. Robots on undulator lines increase the throughput of the facilities. The programmatic, research and development, and technical goals sketched out above aim to support the optimal use of the best PXRR facilities by increasing the pace and quality experiments performed there.