JP3293205B2 - Micro manipulator system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a micromanipulator system, and more particularly to a micromanipulator system for processing a small sample contained in a container with a small instrument.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, when injecting a DNA solution into cells stored in a container such as a petri dish, a micromanipulator having a microneedle on one side and a capture needle on the other side, and a micromanipulator for observing the operation contents are provided. A micromanipulator system including a microscope, an operation panel for inputting operation instructions, and a control unit for controlling the operation panel is used. In a general micromanipulator system, microscopic instruments such as microneedles and capture needles are operated using an operation panel in the field of view of a microscope, and an image thereof is displayed on a CRT display or the like. A predetermined process is performed on the sample.

[0003] In this type of micromanipulator system, if a small instrument collides with the container bottom during the vertical movement operation, the small instrument is damaged. Therefore, a lower limit setting key for preventing collision with the container bottom is arranged on the operation panel. ing. Here, when the micromanipulator is operated to bring the tip of the micro instrument into actual contact with the container bottom and the lower limit setting key is operated, the vertical position at that time is stored in the controller.
Thus, when the micromanipulator is subsequently operated in the vertical direction, the vertical movement is restricted so that the micro instrument does not move below the container bottom.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional configuration,
Since the lower limit is actually set by contacting the micro-equipment with the bottom of the container, in the vertical movement operation at the time of setting the lower limit, the micro-equipment may collide with the container bottom and damage the micro-equipment. An object of the present invention is to prevent damage to a micro instrument when setting a movement restriction.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A micromanipulator system according to the present invention is for processing a micro sample stored in a container with a micro instrument. This system includes a microscope, a micromanipulator, a relative position acquiring unit, and a movement limiting unit. The microscope has a focus adjustment mechanism for adjusting a focus by changing an optical positional relationship, and is for observing a micro sample while holding a container. A micromanipulator moves a small instrument within a field of view of a microscope. The relative position acquisition means is provided by adjusting the focus of the microscope to a predetermined position of the micro instrument.
Focus position of the microscope and the focused position of the microscope
The relative positional relationship between the container and the micro instrument is obtained based on the in-focus position obtained as a result . The movement restricting means restricts the movement of the micro instrument by the micromanipulator based on the result obtained by the relative positional relationship obtaining means.

[0006]

In the micromanipulator system according to the present invention, the microscope is focused on a predetermined position of the micro instrument.
Focus position of the microscope and the focused position of the microscope
The relative positional relationship between the container and the small instrument is acquired by the relative positional relationship acquiring means based on the in-focus position thus obtained . Then, based on the obtained result, the movement restricting means restricts the movement of the micro instrument by the manipulator.

Here, the relative positional relationship between the container and the small instrument can be obtained based on the focus position on the microscope.
There is no need to actually make the setting by contacting the micro instrument with the container bottom. Therefore, it is possible to prevent damage to the micro instrument when the movement restriction is set.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A micromanipulator system according to one embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 comprises a microscope 2 mounted on a base 1, a pair of micromanipulators 3 and 4 arranged on both sides of the microscope 2, and A control device 5 for controlling the microscope 2 and the micromanipulators 3 and 4 is provided.

The microscope 2 has an operation table 6 at the center thereof, and a petri dish 7 for accommodating a small sample such as a cell is arranged on the operation table 6. An objective lens (not shown) is arranged below the operation console 6, and a TV camera 9 is connected to a lower end of the objective lens. The operation console 6 can be driven in a horizontal direction (X, Y axis directions) and a vertical direction (Z axis direction) by a drive mechanism (not shown). Further, a dial 37 for adjusting the focus is provided on a side portion of the main body of the microscope 2. The rotation amount of the dial 37 is detected by the encoder 46 (FIG. 2).

The micromanipulators 3 and 4 are mounted on a base 1 and have tables 10 and 11 and tables 10 and 11.
Coarse moving parts 12 and 13 separately mounted on the fine moving parts 12 and 13 and fine moving parts 14 and 15 separately mounted on the coarse moving parts 12 and 13
And The coarse moving parts 12 and 13 are several to several tens μm in the X, Y and Z axis directions by a pulse motor (not shown).
Unit movement can be performed. The fine movement units 14 and 15 can move in units of 1 μm or less in the X, Y, and Z axis directions by an electromagnetic force method. Arms 16 and 17 driven by the fine movement units 14 and 15 are provided at the ends of the fine movement units 14 and 15 on the microscope 2 side. For example, an injection pipette 18 is attached to the tip of one arm 16. The other arm 17 is provided with, for example, a suction pipette 19. Syringes 20, 21 are separately connected to the pipettes 18, 19 via tubes 22, 23, respectively.

The control device 5 mainly has a monitor 24, an operation panel 25, and a control unit 26. The operation panel 25 has joysticks 27 and 28 for finely moving the two micromanipulators 3 and 4 in the X and Y axis directions.
Fine movement dials 29 and 30 for fine movement in the Z-axis direction;
A group of coarse keys 31 and 32 including a cursor key and an up / down key for coarsely moving in the X, Y, and Z axis directions, a numeric keypad 33 used for inputting various numerical values, a tip key used for setting a lower limit described below, and a bottom key. Various setting key groups 35 and 36 including keys and lower limit setting keys, and other keys are provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the control unit 40 constituting the control unit 26 comprises a microcomputer including a RAM, a ROM and the like. The control unit 40 includes driving units 41 and 42 for driving the TV camera 9, the operation panel 25, and the micromanipulators 3 and 4 in three axial directions, and detecting the positions in the three axial directions, and various types of devices. A memory 43 for storing setting values and the like, and a video RAM 44
And an adder 45 for superimposing the output of the video RAM 44 and the image captured by the TV camera 9, and an encoder 46 for detecting the position of the microscope 2 in the Z-axis direction.
And are connected. The monitor 24 for displaying a superimposed image is connected to the adder 45.

Next, the operation of the above-described embodiment will be described with reference to the control flowcharts of FIGS. When the program starts, initialization is performed in step S1 in FIG. Here, for example, the coarse moving units 12 and 13 and the fine moving unit 1
4, 15 are set to the initial position. Also, set the lower limit set value to the initial value. In step S2, a display process is performed.

In step S3, it is determined whether the lower limit setting key has been operated. In step S4, it is determined whether one of the joysticks 27 and 28 has been operated. In step S5, it is determined whether any of the cursor keys has been operated. In step S6, it is determined whether or not one of fine movement dials 29 and 30 has been operated. In step S7, it is determined whether any of the up / down keys has been operated.

In step S8, it is determined whether another key has been operated. If the determination in step S8 is YES, the process shifts to step S30 to execute a process corresponding to the operated key. If the determination in step S8 is NO, the process moves to step S9. In step S9, other processes are performed, and the process returns to step S2. If it is determined that the lower limit setting key has been operated, the program proceeds from step S3 to step S10. In step S10, a lower limit setting process shown in FIG. 4 is executed. Since the same processing is performed for both manipulators 3 and 4,
Here, only the manipulator 3 will be described.

First, in step S11, a comment, for example, "Please focus on the tip of the micro instrument and press the tip key" is displayed on the monitor 24. The operator who sees this comment turns the dial 37 to focus on, for example, the tip of the pipette 18 and presses the tip key. In step S12, the process waits until the leading key is operated. However, when the leading key is pressed, the process proceeds from step S12 to step S13.
Move to In step S13, the focus position b at the tip of the pipette shown in FIG. In step S15, the coordinate value h for setting the lower limit is reset to “0” and initialized. Note that the coordinate value h is positive in the upward direction.

In step S15, for example, a comment "focus on the bottom of the container and press the bottom key" is displayed. The operator who sees the comment turns the dial 37 to focus on the upper surface of the bottom of the petri dish 7 and presses the bottom key. In step S16, the process waits for the operation of the bottom key. When the bottom key is operated, the process proceeds from step S16 to step S17. Step S17
Then, the focus position a shown in FIG. In step S18, the focus position a is subtracted from the focus position b, and a subtraction value c corresponding to the distance from the tip of the pipette 18 to the upper surface of the bottom of the petri dish 7 is obtained. In step S19, it is determined whether or not the obtained subtraction value c is negative. If the obtained subtraction value c is negative, it is considered that an operation error has occurred, and the process returns to step S11. If it is determined that the subtraction value c is not negative, this processing ends. Thereby, the upper surface of the bottom of the petri dish 7 is set as the lower limit of the manipulator 3.

In FIG. 3, if the joysticks 27 and 28 are operated in step S4, the program proceeds from step S4 to step S20. In step S20, the fine movement units 14, 15 are finely moved in the X and Y axis directions according to the operation direction of the operated joystick.
If it is determined in step S5 that the cursor key has been operated, the process proceeds to step S21. In step S21, the coarse moving parts 12, 13 are coarsely moved in the X and Y axis directions. If it is determined in step S6 that the fine adjustment dials 29 and 30 have been operated, the process proceeds to step S22. In step S22, Z fine movement processing for finely moving the fine movement units 14 and 15 in the Z-axis direction is performed. If it is determined in step S7 that the up / down key has been operated, the process proceeds to step S23. Step S
In 23, Z is used to coarsely move the coarse movement portions 12 and 13 in the Z-axis direction.
Coarse motion processing is performed.

The movement restriction processing is executed during these operations. The operation of the fine movement unit 14 will be described below as a representative. In the Z fine movement processing, step S in FIG.
At 24, it is determined whether or not an upward movement is instructed based on the rotation direction of the fine movement dial 29. If it is determined that the upward movement has been instructed, the process proceeds to step S27. If it is determined that the downward movement has been instructed, the process proceeds to step S25.

In step S25, the current pipette 18
Is read. Subsequently, in step S26, it is determined whether or not the sum of the coordinate value h and the subtraction value c (the position on the bottom upper surface of the petri dish 7) is larger than 0. That is, here, it is determined whether or not the tip of the pipette 18 contacts the upper surface of the bottom of the petri dish 7. When the pipette 18 does not contact the upper surface of the bottom of the petri dish 7 (Step S26 is YES)
Moves from step S26 to step S27. In step S27, the fine movement unit 14 is finely moved in the Z-axis direction according to the rotation of the fine movement dial 29.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S26 that the pipette 18 comes into contact with the upper surface of the bottom of the petri dish 7, the process proceeds to step S26.
Move to 28. In step S28, a comment indicating that the lower limit is set is displayed. Here, since the process of step S27 is not executed, the fine movement is prohibited, ignoring the instruction by the fine movement dial 29. As explained above,
In this embodiment, the distance between the tip of the pipette and the upper surface of the petri dish bottom is detected based on the two focus positions, and the lower limit of the pipette moving range is set based on the detected distance. This eliminates the need and prevents damage to the pipette.

[Other Embodiments] (a) In the above embodiment, the lower limit can be set only for the operation of the fine movement unit, but the lower limit can be set for the coarse movement unit. (b) Instead of reading the amount of rotation of the dial 37 with the encoder 46, the scale of the dial 37 may be visually read, and the value may be input using the ten keys 33 of the operation panel 25 to determine the distance.

[0023]

In the micromanipulator system according to the present invention, the relative positional relationship between the container and the small instrument is obtained based on the in-focus position of the microscope, and the movement of the small instrument is restricted based on the obtained relative positional relationship. Therefore, there is no need to operate the micro instrument when setting the movement restriction. Therefore, it is possible to prevent damage to the micro instrument when the movement restriction is set.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a micromanipulator system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram thereof.

FIG. 3 is a control flowchart thereof.

FIG. 4 is a control flowchart thereof.

FIG. 5 is a control flowchart thereof.

FIG. 6 is a partial sectional view showing a relative positional relationship.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Microscope 3, 4 Micromanipulator 29, 30 Fine movement dial 35, 36 Setting key group 37 Dial 40 Control unit 46 Encoder

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A micromanipulator system for processing a micro sample stored in a container with a micro instrument, said container having a focus adjustment mechanism for performing a focus adjustment by changing an optical positional relationship. A microscope for holding and observing the micro sample, a micro manipulator for moving the micro instrument within the field of view of the microscope, and focusing the microscope on a predetermined position of the micro instrument
The obtained focus position and the focal point of the microscope are positioned at the container.
A relative positional relationship obtaining means for obtaining a relative positional relationship between the container and the small instrument based on the in-focus position obtained in accordance with the home position; and the micro position based on a result obtained by the relative positional relationship obtaining means. A movement limiting means for limiting movement of the micro instrument by the manipulator;