Automated cell transportation for batch-cell manipulation

Batch-cell manipulation is a key technology in biological applications. Robotic manipulation has important significance to improve the operation success rate and reduce the technical threshold, but the problem of inefficiency still exists in batch-cell experiments. In this paper, an automated cell transportation system is designed for batch-cell manipulation. It has some technical aspects such as a cell groove to contain the cells, the micromanipulator and motor stage control methods, and computer vision algorithms. Since the cells are arranged in a line in the groove, the transportation system improves the efficiency of finding the cells in the petri dish. Furthermore, the minimum pressure to drag and release the cell are analyzed theoretically, so that the other cells will not be affected when manipulating one cell. The visual algorithms to detect the cell position and cell holding state are evaluated by porcine oocyte. Experimental results show both algorithm has high success rates: 96% and 100%. Finally, cell rotating experiments are introduced to verify the effectiveness of the transportation system. The average transfer efficiency has been improved by 20% compared to manual operation. The results show that this system can be used in many manipulations.