A High-Speed Automated Colony Picking Machine

摘要

We describe a machine that identifies, locates, and picks bacterial colonies from agar culture dishes and arrays them into microtiter plates.Almost all operations are automatic, being based on computer expen image analysis and object recognition and precision computer-driven X -Y-Z placement.Colonies are identified, rejected if they fail a panel of size, shape, and neighbor clearance criteria, and then transferred by tungsten needles from the source plates to the destination microtiter wells.The needles are sterilized by immersion in sonicating heated water or other agents.Each plate is picked at a rate of one colony per 1.4 seconds.The picking machine is coupled to a general-purpose laboratory manipulator robot that loads and unloads the plates from stacks.The time taken for plate changing reduces the overall production rate to approximately 1000 colonies per hour.Tests showed 100% transfer efficiency and 100% sterilization efficiency for e. coli colonies.This machine, which has been operational since December 1991, is finding application in large-scale projects associated with the Human Genome Project.