Study on cell culture processing system to improve task efficiency (System concept and efficiency improvement of the discarding task using a robot in a media change process)

Abstract

In the field of regenerative medicine, cell processing operation mainly depends on manpower. Moreover, it requires a large amount of labor and cost, and its efficiency needs to be improved. Automatic cell culture apparatuses equipped with a vertical articulated robot have recently been proposed. However, automating all tasks of cell processing complicates the system constitution. This study aims to develop a simple and rational cell processing system by combining the tasks performed by a robot and a human. Herein, we first analyze each task in the cell processing operation, verify whether a task can be efficiently performed by a robot and automated equipment, and judge sharing with a human. In this study, we examined the improvement in the efficiency of the discarding task of spent culture media in a flask using a robot arm in a media change process. We conducted task analysis on the discarding task performed by a cell processing expert and beginner and conducted experiments using a robot on the discarding task based on the analysis results. We proposed an optimum condition of the discarding task considering the dripping risk owing to the characteristics of the culture media and showed that a robot could perform the discarding task more efficiently than a human; the dripping risk could also be reduced using a robot.