JP2012026985A - Sample conveyance apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve positioning precision of a holder with respect to a rack housing when conveying a rack.SOLUTION: The operation of a conveyance mechanism 6 is controlled by an arithmetic processing section 30 via a control section 31. The arithmetic processing section 30 includes conveyance means 32, correction means 34, a positional information holder 36 and a correction information holder 38. The positional information holder 36 holds therein reference positional information for positioning a holding part 16 with respect to each rack housing 4 set by teaching by a worker beforehand. The correction means 34 is configured to execute a correcting operation of the reference positional information held in the positional information holder 36. The reference positional information corrected by the correcting operation is held in the correction information holder 38. The conveyance means 32 is configured to execute a conveying operation such as rack extraction or housing by moving the holding part 16 to a predetermined position including a rack install position of the rack housing 4 and an analysis device on the basis of the reference positional information held in the correction information holder 38.

Description

  The present invention relates to a sample transport device that automatically takes out a sample container of a sample to be analyzed from a shelf in which a plurality of sample containers containing samples are installed and installs the sample container in an analyzer.

  In an automatic analyzer that automatically and continuously analyzes a plurality of samples, a sample transport device that automatically and continuously transports samples is used (see, for example, Patent Document 1). One sample transport device includes a rack shelf that stores a rack on which a sample container is placed, and a transport mechanism that removes the rack from the rack shelf and transports the rack to a predetermined position of the analyzer. The rack shelf is provided with a plurality of rack accommodating portions for accommodating racks, and when the rack is installed in the rack accommodating portion of the rack shelf, the rack on which the sample container to be analyzed by the holding portion of the transport mechanism is placed The rack is held by moving to a predetermined position and conveyed to a predetermined position of the analyzer.

JP 2006-189362 A

  By the way, when the sample transport apparatus is assembled and installed, it is necessary to perform an operation of teaching that causes the transport mechanism to remember the positional relationship with each rack accommodating portion of the rack shelf. The teaching operation is an operation for moving the holding unit to the reference position of the rack housing unit by manual operation and storing the position information in the apparatus. If the teaching work is not performed correctly, the positioning of the holding part with respect to the rack housing part will be displaced, causing problems such as interference of the holding part with the rack body.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to improve the positioning accuracy of a holding unit with respect to a rack housing unit during rack transport.

  The present invention includes a plurality of rack accommodating portions for accommodating a rack that holds a sample container, a holding portion that holds a holding surface of the rack, and a transport mechanism that transports the rack by moving the holding portion; A sensor that is provided on the front end surface of the holding unit and detects the presence of the holding surface, and is housed in the rack housing unit as necessary. Position information that holds position information of a position detection rack having an identification area consisting of an opening or a recess having a larger area than the detection unit, and a preset reference position serving as a reference for positioning the holding unit with respect to the rack housing unit After the holding unit and the position detection rack are housed in the rack housing unit, the sensor is positioned at a position in the identified area based on the position information held in the position information holding unit, and then the sensor Therefore, a correction unit that detects the boundary position of the identified region and changes the position information of the reference position based on the position information of the boundary; a correction information holding unit that holds new reference position information obtained by the correction unit; A sample transport apparatus comprising transport means for performing a rack transport operation based on reference position information held in a correction information holding section, and a control section for controlling a transport mechanism according to the correction means and the transport means. .

  The above-mentioned “position information” set in advance is position information obtained by teaching work performed when the apparatus is assembled or installed. The teaching operation is an operation in which an operator manually positions the holding unit with respect to the rack housing unit and saves position information at that time. The sample transport device of the present invention has a function of correcting the position information obtained by the teaching work by the operator by a correction operation using a sensor. The position information obtained by the teaching work is used when the sensor is positioned at a position in the identified area by the correction operation. Since the identification area is formed wider than the surface identification ability of the sensor, the sensor can be positioned at a position in the identification area even if the position information obtained by teaching work is not so accurate.

  An example of the sensor is a microswitch having an actuator that turns on when the tip is inclined toward the detection side and the holding surface of the rack comes into contact with the tip.

  In the sample transport device according to the present invention, the detection unit of the sensor is configured to be an identification area including an opening or a recess based on the position information held in the position information holding unit in a state where the position detection rack is stored in the rack holding unit. Since the sensor is equipped with a correction means for detecting the boundary position of the identified area by the sensor and changing the reference position information based on the position information of the boundary Thus, even if the high-precision reference position information of the rack housing portion is not obtained, the accuracy of the position information can be improved. Furthermore, since the conveyance means for controlling the conveyance mechanism based on the reference position information changed by the correction operation is also provided, the positioning accuracy of the holding portion with respect to the rack accommodating portion during conveyance is improved, and the holding portion interferes with the rack. Etc. can be prevented.

It is a perspective view which shows one Example of a sample conveyance apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows roughly the control system of the Example. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the rack accommodated in the rack accommodating part of the Example, and an example of the holding part for hold | maintaining the rack, (A) is a normal rack, (B) is a dummy rack, (C) is a perspective view which shows a holding | maintenance part, respectively. It is a flowchart which shows the setting procedure of the positional information of the Example. It is a flowchart which shows the correction | amendment operation | movement of the positional information of the Example. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view in the position of the to-be-identified area | region of the dummy rack for demonstrating operation | movement of a microswitch, (A) The state where a microswitch is ON and (B) The figure which shows the state where a microswitch is OFF. It is a top view of the dummy rack which shows the correction | amendment operation | movement of the positional information on a reference position in order of a process.

An embodiment of the sample transport device will be described with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 1, the sample transport device of this embodiment includes a rack shelf 2 and a transport mechanism 6. Although not shown, this sample transport mechanism is disposed in the vicinity of the analyzer, and the rack accommodated in the rack shelf 2 is installed at the rack installation position of the analyzer by the transport mechanism 6 or analyzed by the analyzer. This is a device for storing the finished sample rack in a predetermined position of the rack shelf 2 by the transport mechanism 6. In this embodiment, the rack installation position of the analyzer is assumed to be disposed on the opposite side of the rack shelf 2 with the transport mechanism 6 interposed therebetween. The rack shelf 2 is provided with a plurality of rack accommodating portions 4 for accommodating racks on which sample containers are placed. The rack takeout / accommodation port of each rack accommodating portion 4 is provided on the front side of the rack shelf 2.

  The transport mechanism 6 includes a holding unit 16 for holding the rack accommodated in the rack accommodating unit 4, and transports the rack by moving the holding unit 16. The holding portion 16 includes a claw portion 18 for holding the rack and is fixed to the tip of the arm 14. The arm 14 is held by a vertical movement unit 12 disposed on the vertical guide 10 in the vertical direction so as to be extendable and contractable in a certain direction. The vertical moving unit 12 can move in the vertical direction along the vertical guide 10 and can rotate about the vertical guide 10. The vertical guide 10 is a bar screw, and the vertical moving portion 12 is screwed with the vertical guide 10. The vertical moving portion 12 moves relative to the vertical guide 10 to move up and down in the vertical direction. A lower end portion of the vertical guide 10 is supported by the horizontal moving portion 9. The horizontal movement unit 9 is arranged on a horizontal guide 8 arranged in parallel with the rack shelf 2, and is movable along the horizontal guide 8.

  With this configuration, the transport mechanism 6 moves the holding part 16 to the position of the arbitrary rack accommodating part 4 of the rack shelf 2 by taking out the rack accommodated therein by positioning the horizontal moving part 9 and the vertical moving part 12. In addition, the rack taken out by the 180 ° rotation of the vertical moving unit 12 and the positioning of the horizontal moving unit 9 and the vertical moving unit 12 can be installed at the rack installation position of the analyzer. The transport mechanism 6 performs the same operation when returning the analyzed rack from the analyzer to the rack housing unit 4.

  FIG. 3A shows a normal sample rack accommodated in the rack accommodating portion 4. The front surface of the sample rack 22 is a holding surface held by the holding portion 16, and a holding opening 24 for inserting and engaging the claw portion 18 of the holding portion 16 is provided on the holding surface. . A microplate 26 as a sample container is placed on the sample rack 22.

  A micro switch 20 as a holding sensor that detects whether or not the holding unit 16 holds the rack 22 is provided on the front surface of the holding unit 16. As shown in more detail in FIG. 3C, the microswitch 20 includes an actuator 20 a whose tip is tilted toward the front side of the holding portion 16. When the actuator 20a is tilted, it is in an off state, and is turned on when the tip of the actuator 20a contacts the holding surface of the rack 22 and is mutated. Since the micro switch 20 is turned on when the holding unit 16 holds the rack 22, it is confirmed whether the holding unit 16 holds the rack 22 based on whether the micro switch 20 is turned on. be able to.

  The rack shelf 2 has a function of refrigeration of the inside of the rack housing portion 4 in order to keep the temperature of the sample stored in the rack housing portion 4 and waiting. When an empty rack accommodating portion 4 that does not accommodate a sample is formed, if the interior is opened without accommodating a rack in the empty rack accommodating portion 4, the inner wall of the rack accommodating portion 4 that is cooled by the refrigeration function Condensation occurs when the outside air touches. Therefore, it is necessary to accommodate the rack even in the rack accommodating portion 4 that does not accommodate the sample. In this case, a normal sample rack 22 may be accommodated. However, since it cannot be identified whether the rack is a rack on which a sample is placed or a rack 22 accommodated for preventing condensation, an empty rack is accommodated. The portion 4 accommodates a dummy rack 22a as shown in FIG.

  The dummy rack 22a is different from the sample rack 22 in that an identified area 28 is provided in a partial area of the holding surface. The identified region 28 is composed of an opening formed wider than the tip of the actuator 20a of the microswitch 20 or a recess having a depth that does not contact the tip of the actuator 20a. The center position of the identified area 28 is set to a position below the position where the tip of the actuator 20a of the holding portion 16 positioned to hold the dummy rack 22a comes by a certain distance. The dummy rack 22a also includes a holding opening 24 for engaging the claw portion 18 of the holding portion 16 with the holding surface.

Here, in the following description, the position where the center of the identified area 28 comes when the dummy rack 22a of each rack accommodating portion 4 is accommodated is referred to as “identification position”, and the rack 22 or 22a of each rack accommodating portion 4 is taken out. The position of the tip of the actuator 22a of the micro switch 20 of the holding unit 16 to be positioned is referred to as a “reference position”. Whether the actuator 20a of the micro switch 20 is in the “reference position” or the “identification position”, the holding opening 24 extends in the vertical direction so that the claws 18 are both in the holding opening 24. It is formed as a long hole.
In this embodiment, the positional relationship between the “reference position” and the “identification position” is set so that the “identification position” is positioned a certain distance below the “reference position”. It is not limited to the vertical positional relationship, and may be a horizontal positional relationship or the like.

  Since the identified region 28 is a recess having a depth that does not contact the opening or the tip of the actuator 20a, even if the microswitch 20 is positioned in this region 28, the actuator 20a contacts the dummy rack 22a holding surface and is mutated. First, the microswitch 20 remains off. The microswitch 20 is used for confirming the presence of the rack 20 or 22 in each rack accommodating portion 4 and for determining whether the rack is the sample rack 22 or the dummy rack 22a. As shown in FIG. 6 (A), when the microswitch 20 is turned on when the holding portion 16 is positioned at the reference position of each rack housing portion 4 and approached to the rack housing portion 4 side, that position. Either rack 22 or 22a is present. Further, the holding portion 16 is positioned at the identification position of the rack accommodating portion 4 and is brought closer to the rack accommodating portion 4 side. When the microswitch 20 is turned on, the rack accommodating portion 4 accommodates the sample rack 22. If the microswitch 20 remains off, the dummy rack 22a is accommodated.

Next, the control system of the transport mechanism 6 will be described with reference to FIG.
The operation of the transport mechanism 6 is controlled by the arithmetic processing unit 30 via the control unit 31. The arithmetic processing unit 30 sends a command according to the process to be executed to the control unit 31, and the control unit 31 sends a signal of the number of pulses according to the command from the arithmetic processing unit 30 to the horizontal moving unit 9, the vertical moving unit 12 or the arm 14. To give. The arithmetic processing unit 30 includes a conveying unit 32, a correcting unit 34, a position information holding unit 36, and a correction information holding unit 38. The position information holding unit 36 holds reference position information for positioning the holding unit 16 with respect to each rack housing unit 4 set in advance by a teaching work by an operator. The correction unit 34 is configured to execute a correction operation for the position information held in the position information holding unit 36. The reference position information corrected by the correction operation is held in the correction information holding unit 38. The transport unit 32 moves the holding unit 16 to a predetermined position including the rack installation unit 4 and the rack installation position of the analyzer based on the reference position information held in the correction information holding unit 38 to take out and store the rack. It is comprised so that conveyance operation | movement may be performed.

A procedure for setting position information for positioning the holding portion 16 with respect to the rack accommodating portion 4 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, the operator performs a teaching operation for setting a reference position for positioning the holding portion 16 with respect to the rack accommodating portion 4 by manual operation (step S1). The teaching operation may be performed for all the rack accommodating portions 4 or may be performed for a specific rack accommodating portion 4. Here, the reference positions of the rack accommodating portions 4 at the four corners are set. The positional relationship between the rack accommodating portions 4 is determined in advance. If the reference positions of the racks at the four corners are determined, the reference positions of all the remaining rack accommodating portions 4 can be obtained by calculation.

  Teaching is performed with the sample racks 22 accommodated in the rack accommodating portions 4 at the four corners. The reference position of the holding surface of the sample rack 22 is marked with a mark that can be visually confirmed by an operator. In teaching work, the position of the holding portion 16 is adjusted so that the tip of the actuator 20a comes to the mark. The position information is stored in the position information holding unit 36 (step S2). This operation is performed on the rack accommodating portions 4 at the four corners.

  After the teaching work is completed, a correction operation for correcting the position information of the rack accommodating portions 4 at the four corners is automatically performed by the operator inputting an instruction to start the correction operation (step S3). The correction operation will be described later. With this correction operation, the corrected position information about the four rack storage units 4 is stored in the correction information holding unit 38 (step S4).

The correction operation will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 5 and the plan view of the holding surface of the dummy rack 22a in FIG.
In the correction operation, the rack accommodating portions 4 at the four corners are left in a state where the sample racks 22 are not accommodated, and the dummy racks 22a are used as position detection racks. The dummy rack 22a may be automatically accommodated in the rack accommodating portion 4 to be corrected by the transport mechanism 6, or an operator may accommodate the dummy racks 22a in the rack accommodating portions 4 at the four corners in advance. May be. The identified area 28 of the dummy rack 22a is detected as the identified area by the microswitch 20, and the reference position of the rack accommodating portion 4 is corrected based on the position information at that time. In this example, the dummy rack 22a in which the transport mechanism 6 is installed at a predetermined place is sequentially transported and stored in the rack storage portions 4 at the four corners (step S11). Positioning of the holding part 16 with respect to each rack accommodating part 4 at the time of transporting the dummy rack 22a is performed based on position information of the position information holding part 36.

  After the dummy rack 22a is accommodated in the predetermined rack accommodating part 4, the identification position of the rack accommodating part 4 is determined from the reference position information of the position information retaining part 36, and the retaining part 16 is moved to the identified position (step S12). FIG. 7 (A)). When the holding unit 16 is moved to the identification position, the tip of the actuator 20a of the microswitch 20 is located in the identified region 28. Even if the holding portion 16 is moved closer to the dummy rack 22a at this position, the microswitch 20 remains off.

  After the actuator 20a is moved by a minute distance in a certain direction from the state in which the actuator 20a is located in the identified area 28, the operation of moving the holding unit 16 toward the dummy rack 22a is repeated, and the microswitch 20 is turned on at the position where it remains off. A boundary with the position is searched (see FIG. 7B). The position of the boundary is the position of the boundary of the identified area 28. This operation is performed in the left and right and up and down directions, and the center position of the identified area 28 is obtained based on the positions of the left and right ends and the upper and lower ends of the identified area (see step S13, FIG. 7C). . The position above the determined center position of the identified area 28 by a certain distance is stored in the correction information holding unit 38 as new reference position information (see step S15, FIG. 7D). The above operation is performed for the rack accommodating portions 4 at the four corners (step S16).

  In this embodiment, since the correction operation is performed by using the dummy rack 22a for preventing condensation in the rack accommodating portion 4, the conventional method can be used without newly creating a rack for the correction operation. The positioning accuracy of the holding portion 16 with respect to the rack accommodating portion 4 can be increased with the apparatus configuration as described above.

2 rack shelves 4 rack accommodating portion 6 transport mechanism 8 horizontal guide 9 horizontal moving portion 10 vertical guide 12 vertical moving portion 14 arm 16 holding portion 18 claw portion 20 microswitch 20a actuator 22 sample rack 22a dummy rack 24 holding opening portion 26 sample Container (microplate)
28 Identified Area 30 Arithmetic Processing Unit 31 Control Unit 32 Conveying Unit 34 Correction Unit 36 Position Information Holding Unit 38 Correction Information Holding Unit

Claims (2)

A plurality of rack accommodating portions for accommodating a rack for holding a sample container;
A holding mechanism for holding the holding surface of the rack, and a transport mechanism for transporting the rack by moving the holding section;
A sensor that is provided on a front end surface of the holding portion and detects the presence of the holding surface;
The rack is accommodated in the rack accommodating portion as necessary, and is a rack different from the rack, and has an identification region comprising an opening or a recess having a larger area than the detection portion of the sensor in a partial region of the holding surface. A position detection rack,
A position information holding unit that holds position information of a preset reference position serving as a reference for positioning the holding unit with respect to the rack accommodating unit;
In a state where the position detection rack is housed in the rack housing portion, the sensor is positioned at a position in the identified area based on the position information held in the position information holding portion, and then the sensor detects the position. Correction means for detecting a boundary position of the identified region and performing a correction operation for changing the position information of the reference position based on the position information of the boundary;
A correction information holding unit for holding new reference position information obtained in the correction operation;
Transport means for performing a rack transport operation based on the reference position information held in the correction information holding section;
A control unit that controls the transport mechanism according to the correction unit and the transport unit.   2. The sample transport according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is a micro switch having an actuator whose tip is tilted toward the detection side and mutated when the holding surface of the rack comes into contact with the tip to turn on the switch. apparatus.

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