The new, automated laboratories are expected to boost the productivity of R&D processes in biopharmaceuticals, chemical engineering and chemistry, and new energy materials.
Jose-Manuel Collados, manager of service robotics product line at ABB Robotics, said: “ABB Robotics and XtalPi will radically advance lab research and development through automation that works side-by-side with people. By enabling pharma and biotech companies to develop new drugs faster and with less cost, ABB is helping to further research into disease prevention, creating healthier societies. Our new Open Innovation Lab for Life Science and Healthcare in Zhangjiang, Shanghai complements our work at our Life Sciences and Healthcare Lab at the Texas Medical Center Campus in Houston.”
In 2022, XtalPi bought more than 100 GoFa cobots to create automated laboratory workstations at its testing facility in Shanghai, China. This year, XtalPi launched the automation-centric brand XtalPi Intelligent Automation with the aim of aiding researchers through automation equipment. Together with ABB Robotics, XtalPi Intelligent Automation is using GoFa cobots to automate the synthesis and crystallisation processes involved in developing new drugs and materials for its target industries.
The automated laboratory workstations can be customised to meet specific requirements using different modules to complete various experiment steps. ABB’s GoFa cobots take on repetitive, manual tasks, while also working non-stop. The data generated is expected to help to boost the efficiency of the Design-Make-Test-Analyse research cycle.
XtalPi Intelligent Automation uses the GoFa cobots to develop preparation workstations, diluting and filtration workstations, reaction workstations, UPLC testing workstations, glovebox workstations, sample warehouses, and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) to make lab research and development faster and more efficient.
According to ABB, each automated workstation can perform hundreds of different experiments, with ABB’s GoFa cobots operating in a range of challenging environments, including glove boxes – with no moisture or oxygen– while performing intricate tasks such as opening lids and the placement of lab equipment. Autonomous mobile robots (AMR) equipped with GoFa cobots transfer samples automatically between workstations, increasing efficiency while further reducing costs.
Equipped with a GoFa cobot and four rotating columns, automated sample warehouses provide compact storage and retrieval for laboratory reagents, making the process more efficient and traceable.
Chenxi Zhang, director of automation product management at XtalPi, said: “Through partnering with ABB, we can increase efficiency in laboratories by implementing a human-robot integration model. We hope to combine XtalPi’s intelligent software system and industry experience with ABB’s expertise in robotics to bring more innovative solutions to the pharmaceutical industry, which will in turn expand the usage of automation and robots in the R&D process and help automate laboratories.”