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Team:Washington-Software
From 2009.igem.org
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Abstract
BioBrick-A-Bot: Lego robot for Automated BioBrick DNA Assembly
Commercial Liquid Handling Systems are extremely expensive, and are typically beyond the reach of the average molecular biologist interested in performing high throughput methods. To address this problem, we design and implement a liquid handling system built from commonly accessible Legos. Our goal is the automation of BioBrick assembly on a platform that can itself be easily replicated and we demonstrate a proof-of-principle for this system by transferring colored dye solutions on a 96-well plate. We introduce a new concept called LegoRoboBrick. The liquid handling system is build from 3 new LegoRoboBrick modular components: ALPHA (Automated Lego Pipette Head Assembly), BETA (BioBrick Environmental Testing Apparatus), and PHI (Pneumatic Handling Interface). We will demonstrate that the same BioBrick assembly software can run on multiple plug-and-play LegoRoboBrick instances with different physical dimensions and geometric configurations. The modular design of LegoRoboBricks allows easy extension of new laboratory functionalities in the future.
Project Goals
- Low Cost – Robot cost significantly lower than $10,000. (Actual cost:~$700)
- Hardware Platform that is easily accessible
- Hardware Design that is easily replicable by other iGEM teams.
- Software Design that is robust, plug and play. Can swap modules from other iGEM teams.
- Design that is easily extensible, to allow future collaboration with other iGEM teams.
The Vision
We build BioBrick-A-Bot V1.0 as a prototype and provide a proof-of-principle demonstration that it worked. V1.0 will however, not have the full range of functionalities of a commercial liquid handling robot. V1.0 will be made up of 2 LegoRoboBrick pieces, ALPHA and PHI, mounted on a chassis called BETA. We will provide construction details and software so that other iGEM team can replicate and customize their own 'bot's.
In our next version, BioBrick-A-Bot V2.0, we will provide 3 LegoRoboBrick pieces, ALPHA, PHI and MU. We will also support user-defined LegoRoboBrick pieces too. We provide the mechanism where other igem teams can colloborate together to replicate, interchange and extend LegoRoboBricks. Many iGEM teams can contribute and share both Hardware Construction and Software Programs for LegoRoboBrick pieces in a Registry, much like the "Registry of Standard Biological Parts". Our vision will be to make the technologies of creating and sharing 'bots' easily available, replacing labour intensive manual work, and cost intensive machines.
To do: Acknowlegement: BioE
