The present invention relates to an automated centrifuge system for
automatically centrifuging liquids containing biological materials such
as nucleic acids using a general centrifuge.
The automated centrifuge system of the present invention comprises a
centrifuge including a rotor in which at least two swing buckets with at
least two microplates mounted thereon are provided so as to perform
centrifugation of the liquids, a multi-joint robot with at least three
joints which includes a gripper attached to a final arm thereof and a
finger attached to the gripper, and a controller for controlling the
predetermined procedures and the operation of the robot. In particular,
the centrifuge and the multi-joint robot are disposed close to each other
on a rigid bottom plate. A sensor for use in position detection is
attached to the gripper or finger. At least one marker is attached at a
predetermined position on a central frame of the rotor, and the
predetermined position is spaced apart from a rotating shaft of the rotor
by a predetermined radial distance. The controller causes the gripper to
be moved so that the sensor is placed onto a circumference of a circle
having a radius equal to the predetermined radial distance and the
gripper to be moved around an axis of the rotating shaft of the rotor so
that the sensor can detect a position of the marker, thereby
automatically performing the predetermined procedures through the
detection of positions of the microplates mounted to the swing buckets of
the centrifuge.
According to the automated centrifuge system of the present invention, the
angular positions of the microplates or test tubes in the rotor of the
centrifuge placed at arbitrary angular positions before or after the
centrifugation can be correctly detected. Thus, the centrifuging
procedures can be automatically performed in any kinds of conventional
centrifuges. Furthermore, since the overall operation of the automated
centrifuge system is simplified, the production costs of the automated
centrifuge system can be remarkably reduced and reliability of the system
can also be greatly improved.