Continuous Flow Single Slide Handling System

Project goal: To design an automated system for placing slides in staining equipment. Currently, microscope slides are removed from their containers and placed into staining equipment manually. This repetitive motion decreases efficiency overtime and increases possibility of contamination and improper slide placement. The design of this system focuses on integration and communication between the sensor system and the mechanical transfer system. Off-the-shelf components were used to build a sensor system to detect slide containers and microscope slides, and to read the barcode on each slide. Microscope slides within the working range are picked up by a gripper mechanism on a Cartesian-gantry robot system. Because the system is handling delicate objects, the gripper system is designed so that it does not damage the microscope slides or the tissue samples.