In this presentation, I will share our experience in automating cell painting over the past three years in the pharmbio robotlab at Uppsala University. We are running two self-built automated systems: (1.) cell painting, an assay preparing cells on multi-well plates for fluorescent imaging, with a UR10 robot arm, plate washers and dispensers and an automated incubator, (2.) microscopy imaging, where a precise flex robot arm feeds microscopes from an automated fridge. I will discuss the parts that make up the system: machine communication, robotarms and robotarm moves, action scheduling and user interaction. I will highlight some issues we have had along the way and how they were resolved.
An outline of the systems can be found on our github: robotlab