A vision guided life-science laboratory robot

Abstract

The automatic plaque selection and culture inoculation robot (APSCIR) is a prototype machine vision directed system that will select a particular set of biological specimens from a mixed random array and harvest each in turn for discrete location in a predetermined spatial format for further processing. The authors describe the image processing aspects of APSCIR, which was originally designed to automate plaque harvesting during the cloning step of the DNA sequencing process. In this device a modified histogram-based segmentation technique is combined with a feature extraction algorithm and rapid classification scheme. This results in a trainable image processing system that will select from petri dishes white plaques growing in a disordered array on a mixed bacterial lawn of blue and white plaques. The candidate plaque coordinates are passed to an XYZ robot that performs sampling and transfer of the selected specimens discretely into separate containers for further culturing.