Liquid handling · Automation · 2022 · Nature Communications
A robot-assisted acoustofluidic end effector
Liquid manipulation is the foundation of most laboratory processes. For macroscale liquid handling, both do-it-yourself and commercial robotic systems are available; however, for microscale, reagents are expensive and sample preparation is difficult.
Performance the paper reports
0 of 5- Motion—Motion accuracy: not reported
- Volume—Volumetric accuracy: not reported
- Viability—Cell viability: not reported
- Unattended—Unattended operation: not reported
- Standard—Standard compliance: not reported
The full text was read and states no figure for any of the five.
How hard this is to adopt
3.1 of 5, higher is easierEach score is shown against the range the other 59 builds actually occupy, because no criterion uses the full 1–5 scale. These describe how reproducible the build is, not how good the science is.
Resolution
3/1–5Not volumetric dispensing; acoustic streaming pumps on the order of mm/s with quadratic voltage control, no metered volume or accuracy, and 20 uL droplets added manually.
Throughput
3/2–5Single capillary forming one fluid path; automates full 96-well plate mixing unattended at 40 s per well but has no independently controlled second channel, with multi-capillary only proposed.
Parts sourcing
3/2–4Mix of common parts and custom/printed components.
Skill needed
4/2–4Build/operation described as low-skill or basic assembly.
Facilities needed
3/2–4Requires accessible but nontrivial lab/maker equipment.
Documentation
3/2–5Some open documentation or files are available.
Validation effort
3/2–4Velocity versus voltage and distance from 5-300 kHz with 2/10/15 µm particles in water and glycerol, but no experimental benchmark against a conventional pump, mixer or pipette.
Cycle time
3/1–4No timing comparison reported; 40 s mixing per well and millisecond droplet mixing are given, with only a qualitative claim that vortex mixers cannot handle viscous fluids.
2 further criteria are recorded but not shown
- Application Level — scored 4 (75% of records share one value), so it cannot separate one build from another.
- Build Time (scored for only 6 of 60 records), so it cannot separate one build from another.
Both remain in the published dataset.
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Publication data
Matched by doi · retrieved 2026-07-21
Abstract
Liquid manipulation is the foundation of most laboratory processes. For macroscale liquid handling, both do-it-yourself and commercial robotic systems are available; however, for microscale, reagents are expensive and sample preparation is difficult. Over the last decade, lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems have come to serve for microscale liquid manipulation; however, lacking automation and multi-functionality. Despite their potential synergies, each has grown separately and no suitable interface yet exists to link macro-level robotics with micro-level LOC or microfluidic devices. Here, we present a robot-assisted acoustofluidic end effector (RAEE) system, comprising a robotic arm and an acoustofluidic end effector, that combines robotics and microfluidic functionalities. We further carried out fluid pumping, particle and zebrafish embryo trapping, and mobile mixing of complex viscous liquids. Finally, we pre-programmed the RAEE to perform automated mixing of viscous liquids in well plates, illustrating its versatility for the automatic execution of chemical processes.
Bibliographic details
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Topics and keywords
Perspective and practical signals
Why it matters
Robot arm + acoustofluidic end effector to do microfluidic-style liquid manipulation and automated mixing.
Limitations
No limitation note curated yet.