Farnborough-based paa (Peak
Analysis & Automation), in
conjunction with the
Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute has developed
automate.it pixcell, a flexible
robotic system for precise
detection, isolation and
picking of part or whole stem
cell colonies from Petri
dishes. It then transfers the
colonies to microtiter plates
ready for further
development.

The robot at the heart of
the pixcell is the Mitsubishi
Electric RP-Series, which was
designed specifically for
micro-handling. It operates
with a placement accuracy of
0.005mm or one-tenth the
width of a human hair, with a
picking cycle time of less than
0.5 seconds.

The robot is very compact,
so fits comfortably within the
cabinet. It is usually used for
precision manufacturing
purposes, such as assembling
watches, mobile phones and
hearing aids or for populating
printed circuit boards with
semiconductors. However it
is designed to be flexible and
once fitted with a suitable
working head can be used in
an almost infinite range of
micro-positioning
applications.