Published in 'Advanced Science', the study highlights how this system, which operates autonomously, can track and place bugs and other organisms accurately, whether stationary or in motion. Guided by real-time visual and spatial data, the system adapts to ensure precise placement.
"The printer itself can act like a human would, with the printer acting as hands, the machine vision system as eyes, and the computer as the brain," explained Guebum Han, a former University of Minnesota mechanical engineering postdoctoral researcher and the study's first author. "The printer can adapt in real-time to moving or still organisms and assemble them in a certain array or pattern."
Traditionally, this process required manual operation, demanding extensive training and often resulting in inconsistent outcomes. The new system significantly reduces the time required while improving the consistency of results.
This technology has the potential to advance the processing of organisms for cryopreservation, sort live organisms from deceased ones, and enable the placement of organisms on complex surfaces. It also opens doors to creating intricate structures, like those seen in insect colonies, and could revolutionize autonomous biomanufacturing by facilitating the evaluation and assembly of organisms.
The research demonstrated the system's efficiency by enhancing the cryopreservation process for zebrafish embryos, achieving completion 12 times faster than manual methods. Additionally, the system successfully tracked, picked up, and positioned randomly moving beetles, integrating them with functional devices.
Looking ahead, the researchers aim to integrate this technology with robotics, making it portable for field research, which could allow for the collection of organisms or samples in previously inaccessible locations.
The University of Minnesota research team included graduate research assistants Kieran Smith and Daniel Wai Hou Ng, Assistant Professor JiYong Lee, Professors John Bischof and Michael McAlpine, and former postdoctoral researchers Kanav Khosla and Xia Ouyang. The work was conducted in collaboration with the Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio).
Funding for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Regenerative Medicine Minnesota.
Research Report:3D Printed Organisms Enabled by Aspiration-Assisted Adaptive Strategies
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