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DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research
Automation has played a key role in improving the safety, accuracy, and efficiency of manufacturing and industrial processes and has the potential to greatly increase throughput in the life sciences. However, the lack of accessible entry-point automation hardware in life science research and STEM ed...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645590/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36350791 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275688 |
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author | Li, Ethan Lam, Amy T. Fuhrmann, Tamar Erikson, Len Wirth, Mike Miller, Mark L. Blikstein, Paulo Riedel-Kruse, Ingmar H. |
author_facet | Li, Ethan Lam, Amy T. Fuhrmann, Tamar Erikson, Len Wirth, Mike Miller, Mark L. Blikstein, Paulo Riedel-Kruse, Ingmar H. |
author_sort | Li, Ethan |
collection | PubMed |
description | Automation has played a key role in improving the safety, accuracy, and efficiency of manufacturing and industrial processes and has the potential to greatly increase throughput in the life sciences. However, the lack of accessible entry-point automation hardware in life science research and STEM education hinders its widespread adoption and development for life science applications. Here we investigate the design of a low-cost (~$150) open-source DIY Arduino-controlled liquid handling robot (LHR) featuring plastic laser-cut parts. The robot moves in three axes with 0.5 mm accuracy and reliably dispenses liquid down to 20 μL. The open source, modular design allows for flexibility and easy modification. A block-based programming interface (Snap4Arduino) further extends the accessibility of this robot, encouraging adaptation and use by educators, hobbyists and beginner programmers. This robot was co-designed with teachers, and we detail the teachers’ feedback in the context of a qualitative study. We conclude that affordable and accessible LHRs similar to this one could provide a useful educational tool to be deployed in classrooms, and LHR-based curricula may encourage interest in STEM and effectively introduce automation technology to life science enthusiasts. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9645590 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-96455902022-11-15 DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research Li, Ethan Lam, Amy T. Fuhrmann, Tamar Erikson, Len Wirth, Mike Miller, Mark L. Blikstein, Paulo Riedel-Kruse, Ingmar H. PLoS One Research Article Automation has played a key role in improving the safety, accuracy, and efficiency of manufacturing and industrial processes and has the potential to greatly increase throughput in the life sciences. However, the lack of accessible entry-point automation hardware in life science research and STEM education hinders its widespread adoption and development for life science applications. Here we investigate the design of a low-cost (~$150) open-source DIY Arduino-controlled liquid handling robot (LHR) featuring plastic laser-cut parts. The robot moves in three axes with 0.5 mm accuracy and reliably dispenses liquid down to 20 μL. The open source, modular design allows for flexibility and easy modification. A block-based programming interface (Snap4Arduino) further extends the accessibility of this robot, encouraging adaptation and use by educators, hobbyists and beginner programmers. This robot was co-designed with teachers, and we detail the teachers’ feedback in the context of a qualitative study. We conclude that affordable and accessible LHRs similar to this one could provide a useful educational tool to be deployed in classrooms, and LHR-based curricula may encourage interest in STEM and effectively introduce automation technology to life science enthusiasts. Public Library of Science 2022-11-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9645590/ /pubmed/36350791 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275688 Text en © 2022 Li et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Li, Ethan Lam, Amy T. Fuhrmann, Tamar Erikson, Len Wirth, Mike Miller, Mark L. Blikstein, Paulo Riedel-Kruse, Ingmar H. DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research |
title | DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research |
title_full | DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research |
title_fullStr | DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research |
title_full_unstemmed | DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research |
title_short | DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research |
title_sort | diy liquid handling robots for integrated stem education and life science research |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645590/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36350791 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275688 |
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