A Computer-Vision-Guided Robot Arm for Automatically Placing Grids in Pioloform Film Preparation

Abstract

Preparing pioloform/formvar support films on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grids is a routine laboratory procedure in practically all electron microscopy units. In current practice, these grids are manually placed on the support film one by one using special tweezers, a process requiring a steady hand. The work is often ergonomically awkward to continue for a longer period of time. In this article, we describe a low-cost, computer vision-guided robot arm that automatically places the grids on the film. The success rate of the prototype robot is 90%, which is comparable to an experienced laboratory technician.

Keywords

• transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
• grid
• film
• formvar
• pioloform
• robot
• computer vision