Lights-Out Lab
MECHO provides full lifecycle lights-out lab solutions, along with interdisciplinary equipment development and production services. Our mission is to drive the evolution of laboratories towards automation, intelligence, sustainability, and low-entropy operations.
Laboratory Design
Modular Laboratories
Lights-Out Labs
Metaverse Laboratories
Interdisciplinary Instrument
What Can a Lights-Out Lab Do?
A lights-out laboratory refers to a fully automated lab where machines handle all operations, from raw materials to the final product. Every process, including processing, transportation, and testing, is completed by machines without the need for human intervention. This setup is ideal for environments with fixed processes, high operation frequency, stringent precision requirements, intense labor demands, or concerns about personnel safety and health. Inspection laboratories and pre-processing tasks meeting these conditions are well-suited for robotic execution.
Robots can replace humans in handling tasks in highly toxic, microbial, and flammable or explosive environments, significantly improving the safety of research personnel. This ensures a safer and more user-friendly operation process.
Safety
Handling of Highly Toxic Substances
Protection
Microbial Environments
When performing precise tasks such as weighing and liquid preparation, robots offer significant advantages over manual operations. They can work 24/7, often at efficiencies several times greater than human capabilities, sometimes even tens of times more efficient. The peak sample processing capacity in lights-out laboratories is greatly enhanced, providing a substantial boost to experimental efficiency. From sample to data output, full automation accelerates the process.
Accuracy
Precision Operations
High-Efficiency
High-Frequency Repetitive Operations
Robots Achieve 64.25 Times
the Detection Efficiency of Humans
Manual titration experiments require 30 minutes to complete one sample test. With personnel working a maximum of 8 hours per day, they can handle up to 16 sample tests daily.
A robot can service 5 titration machines concurrently and operate continuously for 24 hours. Calculations show that a robot can test 1028 samples in a 24-hour period. This translates to the robot testing 64.25 times more samples per day compared to manual testing.
Intelligent Control Management Software
Upon receiving a client request for a lights-out laboratory, MECHO will discuss and communicate with the client to understand the specific needs and implementation methods for each module of the laboratory. This ensures the development of a more scientific, efficient, and rational management and control software system. The management system sends preset instructions to the module robots, which then execute the entire process based on these instructions and subsequently feed the test data back to the management control system for storage.
The management and control system can remotely monitor the working status of robots and testing instruments, including information on the current test samples, testing progress, estimated completion time, and details of pending samples. Additionally, the system can monitor the inventory of various reagents and automatically notify the management personnel when the reagent levels fall below the alert value or when the waste container is near capacity.”
Some Robotics and Automated Systems
Automated Liquid Precision Weighing Robot
The liquid precision weighing robot includes a mechanical arm, a liquid suction device, a lid opening manipulator, a precision electronic balance, an ultrasonic distance sensor and other auxiliary components, and is equipped with intelligent control devices such as an industrial computer, a servo drive, a small programmable controller, and integrated professional management software. Users can set the weighing weight and weighing accuracy through the computer, and the robot will automatically complete the weighing work as required.
Arm
Potentiometric titrator
Liquid suction device
Air Ultrasonic Ceramic Transducers
Precision electronic balance
Arm
Automated Titration Detection Robot
The automated titration detection robot consists of a titration device, a liquid adding device, an automatic sampling robot, etc. The robot can be used with a potentiometric titrator to complete the entire process of automatic loading and unloading and testing of samples. The potentiometric titrator can be connected to the intelligent management system to read and upload test data. The titration automatic detection robot can be equipped with a variety of pre-processing modules according to needs.
Automated pH Detection Robot
The automated pH detection robot includes four-axis robotic arms, constant temperature water baths, pH electrodes, cleaning electrodes and other module units. It automatically completes the entire process from sample constant temperature treatment, pH value detection and cleaning and drying electrodes. The pH value automatic detection robot can be connected to the intelligent management system to read and upload the detection data.
Arm
pH electrode
thermostat water bath
Cleaning electrodes
Automated Weighing and Liquid Handling Workstation
The automated liquid preparation workstation is a modern equipment that can realize automatic liquid preparation, liquid automatic reaction, and liquid automatic post-processing. It provides the laboratory with convenient, fast, accurate and reliable high-end laboratory equipment with fully automated processes.
Automated Pipetting, Dilution, and Filtration Workstation
The automated pipetting, dilution, and filtration workstation can realize the post-processing module and achieve the high automation goal of replacing manual labor throughout the process. The dilution function is also an automatic workstation for post-processing. By diluting a variety of liquids of different concentrations according to the preset ratio, the equipment can quickly prepare the required concentration of solution and automatically transport and process it, and finally send the processed liquid to the final inspection unit.
Automated Testing System for Biopharmaceuticals / Medical Laboratories
The automated testing system for biopharmaceuticals and medical laboratories is aimed at the full-process automated work scenes of cell preparation, sorting, whole genome amplification, DNA purification, and sequencing library preparation. It uses special equipment such as liquid workstations, Z-Arm robotic arms, 6-axis robotic arms, conveying modules, reagent and consumable stacks, film sealers, microplate conveying systems, etc., and is equipped with cell counters, centrifugal systems, and uses intelligent management systems. Integrated system control and communication with various instruments are interconnected to achieve intelligent operation without human intervention in process operations.
Microbial Culture Workstation
The microbial culture workstation uses robots to complete operations such as pipettes, conical flasks, test tubes, and flat dishes, completes the filling of culture media and the gradient dilution of samples, sets the corresponding sample input and output cache areas, and realizes automated microbial detection.
Microbial Observation Workstation
The microbial observation workstation uses robots to complete the sample transfer and observation operations in the incubator, realizes automated sample transfer and observation operations in the culture dish, and uses artificial intelligence to judge the sample status and data information entry.
Biochemical and Immunochemical Pretreatment Workstation
The automated centrifugal cap removal equipment for blood collection is equipped with a flexible robotic arm, an intelligent centrifuge, and a cap removal mechanism. It uses an intelligent recognition camera and Hong Kong analysis management system and high throughput for sample pretreatment.
Liquid-Based Cytology Slide Preparation and Staining Workstation
The liquid-based cytology slide preparation and staining workstation uses a multi-axis transport mechanism and a robot to complete operations such as pipetting and sample transfer, and performs preparation, staining, and sealing of sampled cell samples. It supports the input and output buffering of sample tubes, sedimentation bins, and related consumables. The corresponding input and output buffering areas are designed for specific consumables to realize automated cell sample preparation and staining.
and more.
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