Study on cell culture processing system to improve task efficiency (Efficiency improvement of the injecting task using a robot in a media change process)

In the field of regenerative medicine, cell processing is currently done manually. The process is labor intensive and expensive, and its efficiency must be improved. Automatic cell culture apparatuses equipped with a vertical articulated robot have been proposed recently. However, automating all tasks of cell processing complicates the system constitution. The present study aims to develop a simple and rational cell processing system by combining the tasks performed by a robot with those performed by a human. Herein, we first analyze each task in the cell processing operation, verify whether a task can be efficiently performed by a robot and automated equipment, and decide the combination of the tasks. In a previous paper, we improved the efficiency of the task of discarding spent culture media in a flask by using a robot arm in the media change process. In the present paper, by focusing on the media change process, we examine the efficiency improvement of the task of injecting culture media by using a robot. We propose the configuration of an inspiration/injection port and an algorithm to estimate the start time of injection end motion from the flow rate and conduct a verification experiment. Our results show that a robot can perform the injecting task more efficiently than a human. Moreover, the risk of dripping can be reduced by using a robot.