Robotic Cell Injection System With Position and Force Control: Toward Automatic Batch Biomanipulation

• Published in: IEEE transactions on robotics Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 727 - 737
• Main Authors: Huang, H.B., Dong Sun, Mills, J.K., Shuk Han Cheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.06.2009; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Arrays; Batch biomanipulation; Biological cells; Calibration; cell-holding device; Computer science; control theory; systems; Control algorithms; Control theory. Systems; Decoupling; Exact sciences and technology; Force control; Force measurement; Force sensors; Impedance; Injectors; Motion control; Pipettes; Polyvinylidene fluorides; position and force control; Position control; Real time; Robot sensing systems; robotic cell injection; Robotics; Robotics and automation; cell-holding device; Position control; Mechanical impedance; Control program; Calibration; Real time; Robotics; Decoupling; Optimal trajectory; Vinylidene fluoride polymer; Batch process; Automatic control; Batch production; robotic cell injection; Force transducer; Batch biomanipulation; position and force control; Biomanipulation; Force control
• ISSN: 1552-3098; 1941-0468
• DOI: 10.1109/TRO.2009.2017109

Biological cell injection is laborious work that requires lengthy training and suffers from a low success rate. In this paper, a robotic cell-injection system for automatic injection of batch-suspended cells is proposed. To facilitate the process, these suspended cells are held and fixed to a cell array by a specially designed cell-holding device, and injected one by one through an ldquoout-of-planerdquo cell-injection process. A micropipette equipped with a polyvinylidene fluoride microforce sensor to measure real-time injection force is integrated in the proposed system. Through calibration, an empirical relationship between the cell-injection force and the desired injector pipette trajectory is obtained in advance. Then, after decoupling the out-of-plane cell injection into a position control in the X - Y horizontal plane and an impedance control in the Z -axis, a position and force control algorithm is developed to control the injection pipette. The depth motion of the injector pipette, which cannot be observed by microscope, is indirectly controlled via the impedance control, and the desired force is determined from the online X - Y position control and cell calibration results. Finally, experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.