Team:Alberta/Project/Automation
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+ | <h4>Hardware/Software Iteration</h4> | ||
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+ | Getting something that even sort of worked was very much just a iterative process (pictured is what one of these failed iterations in progress looks like). The most time consuming was the different physical configurations that had to be tried to come up with the current one. The hardest part was trying to come up with a way that would allow for the tip to descend with or without the magnet using only one motor. | ||
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+ | The script writing was also a very much iterative process (you may be familiar with the 'burn and learn' method of micro-controller programming). This was made worse by the fact that not only did the movements require calibration, but every different physical configuration required a completely (and usually radically) different calibration. | ||
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+ | <img style="padding : 20px;" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2009/8/8c/UofA09_diyAuto_HardwareInc.jpg" align="right"> | ||
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<h4>Calibration</h4> | <h4>Calibration</h4> | ||
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Unfortunately, it doesn't really do it reliably, and therefore hasn't been trusted with anything more than second hand beads that have already been used in BioByte construction experiments. This reliability issue is all that stands in the way of a working, inexpensive automation tool for use with the BioByte construction method. | Unfortunately, it doesn't really do it reliably, and therefore hasn't been trusted with anything more than second hand beads that have already been used in BioByte construction experiments. This reliability issue is all that stands in the way of a working, inexpensive automation tool for use with the BioByte construction method. | ||
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+ | <img style="padding : 20px;" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2009/5/54/UofA09_diyAuto_InitialWells.jpg" align="right"> | ||
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+ | <img style="padding : 20px;" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2009/1/14/UofA09_diyAuto_PostRobotWells.jpg" align="right"> | ||
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In order to show that it can move the beads around, a quick little experiment was done. A script was written up such that the automaton would attempt to collect beads from one well, move over to a well full of water, then drop them off. This would be repeated a bunch of times, just to see if it could do it all on its own, if it had enough tries. | In order to show that it can move the beads around, a quick little experiment was done. A script was written up such that the automaton would attempt to collect beads from one well, move over to a well full of water, then drop them off. This would be repeated a bunch of times, just to see if it could do it all on its own, if it had enough tries. | ||
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+ | The upper photograph show the initial set up of the wells in question, with a bead solution in the center well, flanked by two wells with plain water. There is water in both flanking wells because, in all honesty I couldn't remember which way it was going to go. This also had to bonus effect of showing another potential problem associated with the reliability problems, which can be seen in the lower photograph. | ||
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+ | The lower photograph shows the three wells after the robot has wreaked havoc. We can see that the center well is indeed a lighter brown, indicating that there is a lower concentration of magnetic beads here. The well on the right now has a brown colour, indicating that beads did make it into this well. The well on the left also has a slight brown tint, showing that some beads made it to this well too. This occurred when the robot did something I like to call, 'going terminator,' where it missed a well and started stabbing its tip into the surrounding plastic. This causes small splashes which can cross contaminate nearby wells. | ||
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Revision as of 06:34, 21 October 2009
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DIY AutomationOne of the main themes of this project, as well as iGEM in general, is that the simplification of both parts and processes provided by the synthetic biology movement are capable of bringing relatively advanced biological techniques 'to the masses'. With one of the DNA assembly techniques that have been developed during the course of the summer, the goal was to speed up and simplify a very time consuming process. The hope is that it would be simple enough to be used by high school students. Better yet, a trained monkey. Even better still, a simple robotic device, thereby leaving the both the original lab technician, the high school student, and the trained monkey more time for beer, which leads to the situation where a lab technician, high school student and monkey all walk into the bar (cliche, I know). |
The Robotic DeviceSo about this robotic device. Since the DNA assembly method consists mainly of a few repeated and simple actions, interspersed with relatively long wait periods, it seemed like a good candidate for a little bit of automation. This little automaton is built entirely out of a popular plastic construction set, using the only the standard pieces and hardware.
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Hardware and Software
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Getting to a Working Prototype
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Results
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Future Work
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In the event that you want to build it yourself...
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