JP4932766B2 - Automatic teaching apparatus and method for drug discovery - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a drug discovery sample storage system used for identifying, storing, and observing a large number of samples in the field of drug discovery research. More specifically, the present invention relates to a plurality of vertically arranged microtubes enclosing a drug discovery sample. The present invention relates to an automatic drug discovery teaching apparatus and method for causing a drug discovery picking mechanism for inserting and removing a predetermined microtube to and from a storage rack having a storage cell partitioned by a grid-shaped partition to be stored in advance to recognize the position of the storage cell.

In the field of drug discovery research, as shown in FIG. 13, a storage rack 100 conforming to the SBS (Society for Biomolecular Screening) standard having a total number of 384 cells in 16 rows and 24 columns, In order to increase the capacity of the storage rack 100, the partition walls that divide the storage rack 100 are removed leaving the lattice-shaped partition walls 110 having a low height, and the tube support pins 111 are vertically suspended at the intersections of the lattice-shaped partition walls 110. It has been known.
This storage rack is a so-called aluminum sheet-type storage rack, in which the corners are chamfered at an angle of 45 degrees and the rectangular tube-shaped microtubes 120 whose openings are sealed with aluminum sheets are accommodated in tandem. 100 (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  Further, as shown in FIG. 14, similarly to the storage rack described above, a storage rack 200 having a total number of 384 partitions in 16 rows and 24 columns, which is a square tube and is narrowed toward the bottom. A cap-type storage rack that houses a microtube 220 having a main body 222, a cylindrical opening 223, and a cap 224 that fits into the opening 223 by an elastic force has also been proposed.

In order to insert / remove microtubes into / from a storage rack (hereinafter referred to as “384 racks”) having a total number of 384 compartments as described above, a drug discovery picking mechanism that can be controlled in the order of 10 μm is used. .
When inserting / removing a microtube into / from a 384 rack using the drug discovery picking mechanism, a so-called teaching operation is required in which the center position of each storage cell of the 384 rack is stored in advance in the drug discovery picking mechanism. .
In this teaching, the center positions of the storage cells at the four corners of the 384 rack are obtained, and the center positions of the remaining 380 storage cells are obtained by calculation from the center positions of the storage cells at the four corners.
JP 2007-297111 A (3rd page, 11th to 16th paragraphs, FIG. 1)

However, in order to obtain the center positions of the storage cells at the four corners, conventionally, the following inefficient method that relies on human labor has been used.
That is, (1) The drug picking mechanism is made to grip the microtube, and the X and Y axis positions of the drug discovery picking mechanism are adjusted.
(2) The grasping portion of the drug discovery picking mechanism is lowered, and it is visually confirmed whether or not the microtube enters the storage cell of the 384 rack.
(3) If the microtube cannot be inserted into the storage cell, the gripping portion of the drug discovery picking mechanism is raised and the operations (1) and (2) are repeated.
(4) Finally, when it is confirmed that the microtube is inserted into the storage cell, the center position of the storage cell is determined by visual observation from the X direction and the Y direction.

Therefore, the conventional teaching has a problem that it takes a long time to measure the center position of the storage cell.
In addition, measurement of the center position requires visual accuracy of the order of 0.1 mm, but since it is performed by visual inspection, the measurement accuracy varies depending on the operator. Since it is necessary to approach the picking mechanism, there is a risk of electric shock and collision, which is dangerous.

  Therefore, a technical problem to be solved by the present invention, that is, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic teaching device for drug discovery and an automatic teaching method for drug discovery that can be performed in a short time, have high measurement accuracy, and high safety. Is to provide.

First, the invention according to claim 1 is a drug discovery picking mechanism for inserting / removing a microtube enclosing a drug discovery sample into / from a desired storage cell of a storage rack having a predetermined number of storage cells partitioned by a grid-like partition wall. On the other hand, in the automatic drug discovery teaching apparatus for recognizing the position of the storage cell before performing the first picking operation, the drug discovery picking mechanism holds the measurement jig and recognizes the position. The measurement jig is inserted into a region surrounded by the four partition walls and moved in the direction of the four partition walls, and the position where the measurement jig contacts the upper part of the partition wall is measured, and the X-axis direction is measured. The two X coordinate values obtained from the movement of Y and the two Y coordinate values obtained from the movement in the Y-axis direction are obtained, and the average of the two X coordinate values and the average of the two Y coordinate values are stored in the storage. SE By having the position measurement function of the center position of the is obtained by solving the above problems.
Here, in the present invention, the “measuring jig” is a general term for jigs that can be attached to the drug discovery picking mechanism and inserted into the area surrounded by the four partition walls of the storage cell.

  In addition, the invention according to claim 2 is the first for a drug discovery picking mechanism for inserting / removing a microtube enclosing a drug discovery sample into / from a desired position of a storage rack having storage cells partitioned by a grid-like partition wall. In the automatic drug discovery teaching method for recognizing the position of the storage cell before performing the picking operation, the first step in which the drug discovery picking mechanism grips the measurement jig and the four storage cells for recognizing the position A second step of inserting the measurement jig into a region surrounded by the partition walls, and a position where the measurement jig abuts on the upper part of the partition walls by moving the measurement jig in the direction of the four partition walls. A second step of measuring the two X-coordinate values obtained from the movement in the X-axis direction and the two Y-coordinate values obtained from the movement in the Y-axis direction, and the average of the two X-coordinate values and the Two By a fourth step of the average of the coordinate values and the center position of the housing cell is obtained by solving the above problems.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a drug discovery picking mechanism for inserting / removing a microtube enclosing a drug discovery sample into / from a desired storage cell of a storage rack having a predetermined number of storage cells partitioned by a grid-like partition wall On the other hand, in the automatic drug discovery teaching apparatus for recognizing the position of the storage cell before performing the first picking operation, the drug discovery picking mechanism holds the measurement jig and recognizes the position. The measurement jig is inserted into a region surrounded by the four partition walls and moved in the direction of the four partition walls, and the position where the measurement jig contacts the upper part of the partition wall is measured, and the X-axis direction is measured. The two X coordinate values obtained from the movement of Y and the two Y coordinate values obtained from the movement in the Y-axis direction are obtained, and the average of the two X coordinate values and the average of the two Y coordinate values are stored in the storage. SE Because it has a position measurement function that makes it possible to teach the drug discovery picking mechanism without relying on human hands, the teaching time is shortened, the teaching accuracy is increased, and safety during teaching is improved. Improvement can be realized.
Furthermore, since a complicated sensing function is not required, the apparatus configuration can be simplified and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the drug discovery picking in which a microtube enclosing a drug discovery sample is inserted into and removed from a desired storage cell of a storage rack having a predetermined number of storage cells partitioned by a grid-like partition wall. In the automatic drug discovery teaching method for causing the mechanism to recognize the position of the storage cell before performing the first picking operation, the drug discovery picking mechanism recognizes the position in the first step of gripping the measurement jig. A second step of inserting the measurement jig into a region surrounded by the four partition walls of the storage cell; and the measurement jig is moved in the direction of the four partition walls so that the measurement jig becomes the partition wall. A third step of measuring the position of contact with the upper portion of the X-axis, two X-coordinate values obtained from the movement in the X-axis direction, and two Y-coordinate values obtained from the movement in the Y-axis direction. Coordinate value By having the fourth step of setting the average and the average of the two Y coordinate values as the center position of the storage cell, the center position of the storage cell is obtained according to a constant flow regardless of the operator's intuition and experience. Therefore, teaching time can be shortened and teaching accuracy can be improved.

Next, a preferred embodiment of the automatic teaching apparatus and method for drug discovery according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
This embodiment relates to an automatic teaching apparatus and method for drug discovery when using an aluminum sheet type storage rack 100 having a total number of 384 partitions of 16 rows and 24 columns shown in FIG. The cap-type storage rack 200 shown in FIG. 6 and the storage rack having a total number of 96 divisions in 8 rows and 12 columns can be similarly applied.

Here, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the gripping part of the drug discovery picking mechanism used in the automatic drug discovery teaching apparatus and method of this embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a view of the gripping part shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view when viewed from the direction, and FIG. 3 is a side view when the grip portion shown in FIG. 1 is viewed from the direction of arrow III.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of a measurement jig used in this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the measurement jig shown in FIG. It is.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing another example of the measurement jig used in this embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a bottom view of the measurement jig shown in FIG. 6 when viewed from the direction of arrow VII. It is.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing still another example of the measurement jig used in the present embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a bottom view when the measurement jig shown in FIG. 8 is viewed from the arrow IX direction. FIG.
FIG. 10 is a schematic view when the lower insertion portion of the measurement jig shown in FIG. 4 is inserted into an area surrounded by four partition walls constituting one storage cell of the storage rack. 11 and 12 are cross-sectional views for explaining the automatic teaching operation of this embodiment.

  The drug discovery picking mechanism used in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it can be controlled in the order of 10 μm. In this embodiment, the simple picking mechanism shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 is used. A drug discovery picking mechanism including a gripping portion 300 using two claw members formed in a leaf spring shape that is simple in structure and operation is used.

That is, the gripping portion 300 of the drug discovery picking mechanism used in this embodiment includes a reference claw member 310 having an L-shaped cross section made of iron or the like, and two claw members 330 formed in a plate spring shape made of stainless steel or the like, And a claw support member 320 having an L-shaped cross section made of iron or the like that supports 340.
And this holding | grip part 300 has the microtube accommodation hole 315 whose opening surface formed by combining the reference | standard nail | claw member 310 and the nail | claw support member 320 is a rectangular parallelepiped space.

And the nail | claw members 330 and 340 have the front-end | tip circular site | parts 330a and 340a by which the front-end | tip was bent circularly, as shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, the tip circular portion 340 a of the claw member 340 is indicated by a hidden line.
As shown in FIG. 1, the tip circular portions 330a and 340a of the claw members 330 and 340 are microscopically inserted through the insertion holes 320a and 320b provided below the portions to which the claw members 330 and 340 of the claw support member 320 are fixed. Projecting into the tube storage hole 315.

Since the gripping part 300 of the drug discovery picking mechanism has such a configuration, the microtube has the microtube storage hole 315 of the reference claw member 310 formed by the tip circular portions 330a and 340a of the claw members 330 and 340. It is pressed against two orthogonal inner surfaces that constitute it.
Then, the head of the microtube is dropped and pressed by the rod, and the microtube is pushed out from the microtube housing hole 315 toward the storage cell of the storage rack, and the bottom of the microtube is pushed up by the push-up rod and the microtube is removed from the storage rack. The microtube can be smoothly slid when pushed back into the microtube storage hole 315.

Next, an example of the measurement jig used in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
4 and 5, the upper grip 400a has the same shape as the head of the microtube, and the lower insert 400b is sufficiently longer than the length of one side of the opening of the storage cell. It is a protrusion shape having a square cross section with a short side.
Here, in this embodiment, “sufficiently short” means that at the start of teaching, the operator does not labor the measurement jig within the area surrounded by the four partition walls constituting the storage cell. It means the length that can be inserted and can withstand the load applied by the measurement jig during measurement.

Another example of the measurement jig used in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
6 and 7, the upper holding part 500a has the same shape as the head of the microtube, and the lower insertion part 500b is sufficiently longer than the length of one side of the opening of the storage cell. It is a projection shape with a square section and a short diameter.

Furthermore, another example of the measuring jig used in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
8 and 9, the upper gripping portion 600a has the same shape as the head of the microtube, and the lower insertion portion 600b is sufficiently longer than the length of one side of the opening of the storage cell. It is a projection shape with a square section and a short diameter.

By using the measurement jig 400 having the shape as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 as the measurement jig, the lower insertion portion 400b of the measurement jig 400 is stored in the storage rack as shown in FIG. Since it can be easily inserted into the area surrounded by the four partition walls 110 constituting one storage cell 112, the teaching time can be further shortened, and the effect is enormous.
In FIG. 10, the depiction of the upper gripping portion of the measurement jig 400 is omitted.

Further, even when the measurement jigs 500 and 600 shown in FIGS. 6, 7, 8, and 9 are used, the diameter or the long diameter of the lower insertion portions 500 b and 600 b is the length of one side of the opening of the storage cell 112. Further, the teaching time can be further shortened because it is sufficiently shorter and can be easily inserted into the area surrounded by the four partition walls 110 constituting one storage cell 112 of the storage rack 100.
Furthermore, since the lower insertion portions 500b and 600b have no corners, there is an effect of reducing the impact at the time of contact with the partition wall 110.

  Here, the material of the measuring jigs 400, 500, and 600 is not particularly limited, but in the present embodiment, aluminum that is lightweight and excellent in workability, chemical resistance, and durability is used. .

Next, the storage cell position detection process, which is the main part of the present embodiment, will be described with reference to FIGS.
11 and 12 show a vertical sectional view of the grasping portion 300 of the drug discovery picking mechanism shown in FIG. 1 taken along the line XI-XI and viewed from the direction of the arrow, and one storage cell of the storage rack 100. A vertical sectional view 112 and a side view of the measurement jig 400 are described.

  First, as shown in FIG. 11A, the measurement jig 400 is held in the microtube insertion hole 315 of the holding unit 300 of the drug discovery picking mechanism (first step).

  The storage cell 112 whose position is to be recognized by the lower insertion portion 400b of the measurement jig 400, that is, an area surrounded by the four partition walls 110 constituting one storage cell 112 of the four corners of the storage rack 100. The gripping part 300 of the drug discovery picking mechanism is lowered in the direction of arrow A while manually teaching it so as to be inserted into the inside.

Next, as shown in FIG. 11B, after the gripping part 300 is lowered to the extent that it does not contact the tube support pins 111 of the storage rack 100, the dropping bar 350 is lowered in the arrow B direction for measurement. The jig 400 is lowered.
Although not shown, the four partition walls constituting one storage cell 112 without the lower insertion portion 400b of the measuring jig 400 colliding with the partition wall 110 by a lower limit sensor or the like associated with the dropping bar 350. It is detected that it has been inserted into the area surrounded by 110 (second step).

  Here, an air device is used for lowering the dropping rod 350 to adjust the speed and pressure at which the lower insertion portion 400b of the measuring jig 400 abuts against the partition wall 110, that is, the abutting speed is reduced. By reducing the pressure at the time of contact, the position of the storage cell 112 can be detected without damaging the partition wall 110 of the storage rack 100.

Next, when it is detected that the lower insertion portion 400b of the measuring jig 400 is inserted into the region surrounded by the four partition walls 110 constituting one storage cell 112 without colliding with the partition wall 110, FIG. As shown in (c), the push-up rod 360 is raised in the direction of arrow C, and the measurement jig 400 is returned into the microtube insertion hole 315 of the grip portion 300.
Then, the gripping part 300 is raised in the direction of arrow D until it becomes the same height as FIG.

Then, as shown in FIG. 11D, the gripping portion 300 is slightly moved in the direction of arrow E (X-axis minus direction). In this embodiment, it is moved by 10 μm.
Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 11A, the gripping unit 300 is lowered again.
Such a series of operations shown in FIGS. 11A to 11D is automatically repeated by the control device of the drug discovery picking mechanism.
Then, as shown in FIG. 12A, the gripping portion 300 of the drug discovery picking mechanism is lowered in the direction of arrow F, and the gripping portion 300 is moved to the tube support pin of the storage rack 100 as shown in FIG. After being lowered to the extent that it does not come into contact with 111, the dropping rod 350 is lowered in the direction of arrow G to lower the measurement jig 400.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 12C, when it is detected that the lower insertion portion 400b of the measurement jig 400 is in contact with the upper portion of the partition wall 110, the position in the X-axis direction at that time is created as Xa. It memorize | stores in the memory in the control circuit of a medicinal picking mechanism.

Next, the above-described series of operations is performed on the facing partition.
That is, the series of operations shown in FIGS. 11A to 11D are repeated with the arrow E direction in FIG. 11D reversed (X-axis plus direction).
As a result, when it is detected that the lower insertion portion 400b of the measurement jig 400 is in contact with the upper portion of the partition wall 110, the position in the X-axis direction at that time is set as Xb in the memory in the control circuit of the drug discovery picking mechanism. Remember.
Further, by changing the moving direction of the gripping portion 300 of the drug discovery picking mechanism to the Y axis direction, Ya and Yb are detected by the same method as the detection of the coordinate position in the X axis direction described above, and the drug discovery picking mechanism It memorize | stores in the memory in a control circuit (3rd process).

Then, an average of two X coordinate values obtained from the movement of the drug discovery picking mechanism in the X-axis direction, that is, (Xa + Xb) / 2 is obtained, and this is calculated in the X-axis direction of the storage cell 112 as a position recognition target. The coordinate position is X1.
Further, an average of two Y coordinate values obtained from the movement of the drug discovery picking mechanism in the Y-axis direction, that is, (Ya + Yb) / 2 is obtained, and this is obtained in the Y-axis direction of the storage cell 112 that is a position recognition target. The coordinate position is Y1.

  Then, the center position of the storage cell 112 that is finally the position recognition target is obtained as (X1, Y1) (fourth step).

  The operation for obtaining the X and Y coordinates of the center position of the storage cell 112 as described above is performed for all of the storage cells 112 at the four corners of the storage rack 100, and the obtained coordinate positions of the storage cells 112 at the four corners, that is, , (X1, Y1), (X2, Y2), (X3, Y3), (X4, Y4) and the known pitch of the storage rack 100 (4.5 mm in this embodiment), the storage rack 100 The center positions of all the 384 storage cells are calculated.

  By performing the teaching as described above before the first picking operation, smooth picking can be performed almost without being affected by the tolerance that tends to occur when forming the storage rack, and the effect is enormous.

  According to the present invention, since the teaching work performed before the first picking operation of the drug discovery picking mechanism can be automatically performed, the work is simple, the time can be shortened, and the accuracy is improved. Therefore, it is possible to avoid dangers such as electric shock and collision that tend to occur during teaching work, and its industrial applicability is extremely high.

The perspective view which showed the holding part of the picking mechanism for drug discovery of an Example. FIG. 2 is a perspective view when the grip portion shown in FIG. 1 is viewed from the direction of arrow II. The side view when the grip part shown in FIG. 1 is seen from arrow III direction. The perspective view which shows an example of the jig for a measurement of an Example. FIG. 5 is a bottom view when the measuring jig shown in FIG. 4 is viewed from an arrow V direction. The perspective view which shows another example of the jig | tool for a measurement of an Example. The bottom view when the measuring jig shown in FIG. 6 is viewed from the direction of arrow VII. The perspective view which shows another example of the jig | tool for a measurement of an Example. FIG. 9 is a bottom view when the measuring jig shown in FIG. 8 is viewed from an arrow IX direction. Schematic when the lower insertion part of the jig | tool for a measurement shown in FIG. 4 is inserted in a storage cell. Sectional drawing explaining operation | movement of the automatic teaching of a present Example. Sectional drawing explaining operation | movement of the automatic teaching of a present Example. The perspective view of an aluminum sheet type storage rack. The perspective view of a cap-type storage rack.

100, 200 ... Storage rack 110 ... Bulkhead 111 (of storage rack) ... Tube support pin 112 (of storage rack) Storage cell 120, 220 (of storage rack) ... Microtube 222 ... Tube body 223 (of microtube) ... Opening 224 (of microtube) ... Cap 300 (of microtube) ... Grip part 310 (of drug discovery picking mechanism) ... Reference claw Member 315 ... Microtube storage hole 320 ... Claw support members 320a, 320b ... Insert holes 330, 340 (of claw support members) ... Claw members 330a, 340a ... Tip (of claw members) Circular part 350 ... Dropping bar 360 ... Pushing bar 400, 500, 600 ... Measuring jig 400a, 500 , 600a · · · (measurement jig) upper gripping portion 400b, 500b, (measurement jig) 600b · · · lower insert portion

Claims (2)

Before the first picking operation for the drug discovery picking mechanism for inserting / removing the microtube containing the drug discovery sample into / from a desired storage cell of a storage rack having a predetermined number of storage cells partitioned by a grid-like partition wall In the automatic teaching device for drug discovery that allows the position of the storage cell to be recognized,
The drug discovery picking mechanism grips the measurement jig and inserts the measurement jig into a region surrounded by the four partition walls of the storage cell for recognizing the position, and moves in the direction of the four partition walls. Then, the position where the measurement jig contacts the upper part of the partition wall is measured, and two X coordinate values obtained from the movement in the X axis direction and two Y coordinate values obtained from the movement in the Y axis direction are obtained. An automatic teaching device for drug discovery characterized by having a position measuring function that obtains the average of the two X coordinate values and the average of the two Y coordinate values as the center position of the storage cell. Before the first picking operation for the drug discovery picking mechanism for inserting / removing the microtube containing the drug discovery sample into / from a desired storage cell of a storage rack having a predetermined number of storage cells partitioned by a grid-like partition wall In the automatic teaching method for drug discovery that allows the position of the storage cell to be recognized,
A first step in which the drug discovery picking mechanism grips the measurement jig; a second step in which the measurement jig is inserted into a region surrounded by four partition walls of the storage cell for recognizing the position; The third step of moving the measurement jig in the direction of the four partition walls and measuring the position where the measurement jig contacts the top of the partition wall, and the two X coordinate values obtained from the movement in the X-axis direction And two Y coordinate values obtained from the movement in the Y-axis direction, and a fourth step in which the average of the two X coordinate values and the average of the two Y coordinate values are used as the center position of the storage cell. An automatic teaching method for drug discovery, comprising:

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