An Augmented Micromanipulation System for Cell Microinjection
Ankur Kapoor, Rajesh Kumar and Russell H. Taylor
THE PROBLEM
Is it possible to provide a flexible and intuitive means of performing micrometer scale laboratory bio-manipulation tasks? Examples of these tasks are
  1.  Manipulation of individual cells
  2.  Injection of genetic material into cells.
The current process
  1.  Is tedious
  2.  Requires up to 1 year to become skilled
  3.     Has low success rates
  4.  Injection Phase – 40-70%
  5.  Implant Phase – 40%
  6.  Desired Gene in Offspring – 10-20%
  7.  Overall – 1-4%
THE SOLUTION
Use “Steady Hand” robot to perform micromanipulation tasks.
Develop augmentation strategies such as
  1.     Compliant Mode – User guides the pipette into the cell
  2.     Augmented – Robot assists the user
  3.     Automatic – Robot automatically injects
Compare each of the strategies for effectiveness.
THE RESULTS
Success in 22 out of 22 injections in preliminary experiments.
Demonstrates the efficacy of using cooperative manipulation in microinjection.
Very attractive results for transgenic product manufacturers.
THE FUTURE
Explore force and vision based augmentation.
Subjective evaluation by trained users.
Develop a custom robot for cell manipulation.
A valuable tool for bio-manipulation tasks.
PUBLICATIONS
Simple Biomanipulation Tasks With “Steady Hand” Cooperative Manipulator, MICCAI 2003.
Preliminary Experiments in Robot/Human Cooperative Microinjection, IROS 2003.