Pharmaceutical Technology - November 2018

Pharmaceutical Technology - eBook

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Pharmaceutical Technology LABORATORY BEST PRACTICES 2018 5 laborative robot, introduced in September 2017, is lightweight, can be easily moved to wherever it is needed, and is mounted above the work area to save valuable laboratory f loorspace. Pick-and-place operations (e.g., from one ma- chine to another or in and out of storage) are the primary use in pharma labs, comments Darrell Paul, market manager of Robotics and Motion at Omron Automation Americas. Laboratory systems need to handle multiple task changes, using solu- tions such as mobile carts for automating differ- ent machines and 3D-vision-based calibration for changing work environments, says Paul. "3D-vision calibration is achieved with a 2D camera that mea- sures a known object and uses that to determine a 3D position. An example is a tray-stacking ap- plication where the robot can load/unload a tray of parts, then remove the tray, 3D-calibrate the depth of the next tray, then begin unloading again. This system eliminates the need for rigid fixtures and additional sensors," explains Paul. According to a Grand View Research report, the pharmaceutical robotics market was valued at $145.5 million in 2017 and is expected to grow at a com- pound annual growth rate of 14.5% from 2018 to 2025 (2). The laboratory applications segment of the pharmaceutical robotics market made up approxi- mately 25% of its value, and cobots accounted for approximately 25% of the laboratory segment's value. "Many pharmaceutical companies are replacing tra- ditional robots with collaborative robots to increase f lexibility and efficiency," comments Shailendra Gaikwad, senior research analyst at Grand View Re- search, who notes that the increasing use of cobots in pharmaceutical laboratory picking and packaging applications generated significant revenue. Lab uses In pharmaceutical laboratories, robots support high-throughput analysis and offer sterile handling and efficient and accurate performance of repeti- tive tasks. "Some of the tasks performed by col- laborative robots include cultivating and transfer- ring cells and treatment of samples in a centrifuge. These are also used for transportation of microtiter plates between instruments. Other laboratory ap- plications include vial handling and transferring components from station to station pre- and post- filling and packaging," says Gaikwad. Other traditional lab tasks that are being auto- mated include vial or dish labeling, pipetting of solutions, and more complicated tasks such as me- trology inspections using instruments attached to end-effectors on the cobot, adds Elliot Abreu, se- nior vice-president at systems integrator Xyntek. An advantage of cobots in the lab is their f lex- ibility to handle different types of samples, from well plates to other containers such as vials or tubes. "A cobot can take caps on and off tubes, put the tubes in a rack, and place them in an instru- ment," notes Ouren. Another advantage of cobots is that they can work in existing lab spaces with existing equipment. Integrators take the robotic hardware from com- panies such as Precise Automation and design soft- ware to use them in specific applications, explains Ouren. "We're seeing more clever uses of cobots to automate one or two little steps that had been handled by a human. For example, a cobot can be used to open a drawer, place the rack or plate in- side, and close the drawer." Cobots are also used to improve safety and pro- ductivity by acting as an intermediate automated

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