SANYO DENKI CO., LTD. Denki's know-how and co-creation business that contributed to the project

Support system as a servo motor manufacturer for the development of remote pipette robots

Taisei Corporation, a major general contractor, has launched a new technology development project and started developing a new concept of "remote control system" for "labor saving in production facilities (pharmaceutical and food factories, etc.).

As part of this effort, TAISEI, in collaboration with SOFTBANK, has embarked on the development and demonstration of a system to remotely operate a cell culture pipette robot via 5G.

Pipetting involves aspirating, dispensing, and measuring minute amounts of liquid, and it is necessary to avoid damaging cells and other objects. Therefore, the remote operation requires precise movements of the robot arm without delay. However, there were a number of technical hurdles to overcome in this unprecedented attempt.

First, in order to transmit the operator's movements to the remote robot, it is necessary to accurately acquire the operator's position information. In addition, since a rotary servo motor was initially considered for the robot hand on the remote side, a "rack and pinion mechanism" was needed to convert the rotary motion into a linear motion. However, this would have increased the size of the device, so improvements were required. In addition, the motion of the operator and the remote side must not be delayed, so it was necessary to keep the delay within a range (within 0.2 seconds) that would not be felt by the human operator.

Operation side (Tokyo)

[Cell culture apparatus installation side (Osaka)

Photo courtesy of Taisei Corporation

To address these issues, SANYO DENKI CO., LTD. has built a support system as a servo motor manufacturer and proposed a number of solutions based on the know-how it has accumulated in FA systems.

Cylinder Linear Motor Slims Down Equipment and Enables Delay-Free Remote Operation with EtherCAT

Successfully performing remote pipetting using 5G - to realize this unprecedented endeavor, SoftBank, which is building the 5G network with Taisei Corporation, contacted SANYO DENKI CO., LTD., as well as Nichiryo, a manufacturer of medical and scientific equipment, and Matsuura Denkosha, an electrical control company, to bring their respective technologies together and continue developing the robot.

To solve the problem of obtaining position information from the operator, SANYO DENKI CO., LTD. first provided the encoder itself and the know-how for installing it to Nichiryo, a manufacturer of pipettes.

We also proposed replacing the rotary servomotor that was being considered for driving the arm on the remote side with a small cylinder linear servomotor. Although this linear servo motor has a width of 12 mm, it can generate a rated thrust of 5.1 N, which is enough to meet the required torque (force to push the pipette spring). In addition, the built-in linear encoder (optical incremental) and linear guide allowed us to completely eliminate the rack and pinion mechanism. This proposal made the mechanism on the remote side simpler and slimmer.

[Remote side

In addition, to minimize the delay between the operating side and the remote side, we proposed high-speed communication using EtherCAT. As a result, we succeeded in transmitting the operation of the operating side via the "DC48 EtherCAT R amplifier" to the "cylindrical linear motor" on the remote side accurately and with no noticeable delay (0.03 seconds).
In addition, when checking the operation of the pipette, we were also able to successfully quantify the manual work involved, which opens up the possibility of further innovation, such as AI learning.

Experimental Success! Co-creative relationships that leverage areas of expertise are the key to success.

In this way, multiple companies came together under the Taisei Corporation and SoftBank project and solved one technical challenge after another.
In March 2021, Taisei Corporation and SoftBank conducted a remote operation demonstration using 5G and a 4K monitor between Tokyo and Osaka. They successfully performed remote pipetting. It can be said that the success of this advanced experiment was due to the fact that the companies were able to build a co-creative relationship.
SANYO DENKI CO., LTD. will continue to contribute to the creation of new businesses by utilizing the know-how it has accumulated in building FA systems.

Taisei Corporation What's New Article
Successful remote control of cell culture pipetting using 5G and a robotic arm | 2021 | Taisei Corporation (taisei.co.jp)

Our Information Published Articles
Our small cylinder linear servo motor has been adopted by Taisei Corporation for its "Remote Pipette Operation System for Cell Culture."

release date: 2021-10-15 00:00