Micro-scale robotic task control and automation

近年来，医学界和生物学研究界对转基因生物的发展、对小群体细胞或单细胞的药物试验以及与遗传学有关的其他活动的研究产生了极大的兴趣。很明显，这类任务，例如向细胞内注射物质，必须大规模进行，以跟上医学和生物学研究界的需要。目前，这种处理大部分是使用人工操作进行的。为了解决这个问题，这里提出的研究工作是针对使用机器人技术的微尺度任务的自动化。这位研究人员在机器人技术领域有着悠久的研究历史，研究领域涉及到微尺度任务执行的关键领域。这些领域包括机器人力控制、接触任务执行、具有规定闭环性能的机器人闭环控制器的设计、机器人接触任务控制的稳定性和性能研究。我们将调查目前阻碍涉及接触生物材料的微尺度任务自动化的关键研究领域。机器人装置与微生物标本的相互作用很容易导致失败，如果生物材料被破坏，由于控制不善的设备接触细胞。我们将设计能够在微牛顿水平上可靠地控制力的控制器，允许可靠和一致地将材料插入细胞。将设计和测试视觉控制与内环力和位置控制相结合，可用于自动化过程。利用鲁棒控制设计方法，控制器将被设计成允许这些机器人操作在生物材料机械性能中存在大量动态参数不确定性的情况下进行，同时实现良好的闭环性能。此外，将开发用于自动机器人加工的自动定位生物材料的方法。广泛的实验调查将测试和验证这些方法的动态行为。

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.