US20100097893A1 - Method and Apparatus for Locating the Surface of Solid Growth Culture Media in a Plate - Google Patents

Method and Apparatus for Locating the Surface of Solid Growth Culture Media in a Plate Download PDF

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Publication number
US20100097893A1
US20100097893A1 US12/520,969 US52096908A US2010097893A1 US 20100097893 A1 US20100097893 A1 US 20100097893A1 US 52096908 A US52096908 A US 52096908A US 2010097893 A1 US2010097893 A1 US 2010097893A1
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Prior art keywords
plate
medium
datum level
work position
sensor
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Abandoned
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US12/520,969
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English (en)
Inventor
Chong Kean Ooi
Michael John Tomlinson
Leon Raj
Graeme John Cross
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Lab Tech Systems Ltd
LBT Innovations Ltd
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Lab Tech Systems Ltd
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Priority claimed from AU2007900147A external-priority patent/AU2007900147A0/en
Application filed by Lab Tech Systems Ltd filed Critical Lab Tech Systems Ltd
Assigned to LABTECH SYSTEMS LIMITED reassignment LABTECH SYSTEMS LIMITED ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: OOI, CHONG KEAN, CROSS, GRAEME JOHN, RAJ, LEON, TOMLINSON, MICHAEL JOHN
Publication of US20100097893A1 publication Critical patent/US20100097893A1/en
Assigned to LBT INNOVATIONS LIMITED reassignment LBT INNOVATIONS LIMITED CHANGE OF NAME (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: LABTECH SYSTEMS LTD
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
    • G01S15/00—Systems using the reflection or reradiation of acoustic waves, e.g. sonar systems
    • G01S15/02—Systems using the reflection or reradiation of acoustic waves, e.g. sonar systems using reflection of acoustic waves
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C12—BIOCHEMISTRY; BEER; SPIRITS; WINE; VINEGAR; MICROBIOLOGY; ENZYMOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING
    • C12M—APPARATUS FOR ENZYMOLOGY OR MICROBIOLOGY; APPARATUS FOR CULTURING MICROORGANISMS FOR PRODUCING BIOMASS, FOR GROWING CELLS OR FOR OBTAINING FERMENTATION OR METABOLIC PRODUCTS, i.e. BIOREACTORS OR FERMENTERS
    • C12M23/00—Constructional details, e.g. recesses, hinges
    • C12M23/02—Form or structure of the vessel
    • C12M23/10—Petri dish
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C12—BIOCHEMISTRY; BEER; SPIRITS; WINE; VINEGAR; MICROBIOLOGY; ENZYMOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING
    • C12M—APPARATUS FOR ENZYMOLOGY OR MICROBIOLOGY; APPARATUS FOR CULTURING MICROORGANISMS FOR PRODUCING BIOMASS, FOR GROWING CELLS OR FOR OBTAINING FERMENTATION OR METABOLIC PRODUCTS, i.e. BIOREACTORS OR FERMENTERS
    • C12M23/00—Constructional details, e.g. recesses, hinges
    • C12M23/50—Means for positioning or orientating the apparatus
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C12—BIOCHEMISTRY; BEER; SPIRITS; WINE; VINEGAR; MICROBIOLOGY; ENZYMOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING
    • C12M—APPARATUS FOR ENZYMOLOGY OR MICROBIOLOGY; APPARATUS FOR CULTURING MICROORGANISMS FOR PRODUCING BIOMASS, FOR GROWING CELLS OR FOR OBTAINING FERMENTATION OR METABOLIC PRODUCTS, i.e. BIOREACTORS OR FERMENTERS
    • C12M33/00—Means for introduction, transport, positioning, extraction, harvesting, peeling or sampling of biological material in or from the apparatus
    • C12M33/04—Means for introduction, transport, positioning, extraction, harvesting, peeling or sampling of biological material in or from the apparatus by injection or suction, e.g. using pipettes, syringes, needles
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01B—MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEAR DIMENSIONS; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS
    • G01B21/00—Measuring arrangements or details thereof, where the measuring technique is not covered by the other groups of this subclass, unspecified or not relevant
    • G01B21/16—Measuring arrangements or details thereof, where the measuring technique is not covered by the other groups of this subclass, unspecified or not relevant for measuring distance of clearance between spaced objects
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N35/00—Automatic analysis not limited to methods or materials provided for in any single one of groups G01N1/00 - G01N33/00; Handling materials therefor
    • G01N35/02—Automatic analysis not limited to methods or materials provided for in any single one of groups G01N1/00 - G01N33/00; Handling materials therefor using a plurality of sample containers moved by a conveyor system past one or more treatment or analysis stations
    • G01N35/04—Details of the conveyor system
    • G01N2035/0474—Details of actuating means for conveyors or pipettes
    • G01N2035/0491—Position sensing, encoding; closed-loop control

Definitions

  • the present invention relates generally to apparatus involved in the inoculation of solid growth culture media with a microbiological sample, and the subsequent streaking of the inoculum to produce isolated bacterial colonies, principally for diagnostic purposes in a laboratory, such as for medical diagnostic purposes.
  • the present invention specifically relates to a method and an apparatus for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate, to assist with a subsequent streaking operation, in an automated streaking apparatus.
  • the invention is not to be limited to only that application.
  • the hand-tool typically includes a terminal loop to make multiple streaks of increasing dilution of the inoculum across the medium.
  • the streaks of increasing dilution tend to provide, generally towards the tail of the streaks, a number of single cells that allow for the growth of isolated microbiological colonies after incubation. These isolated colonies may then be analysed for colony morphology, and may undergo staining and other procedures which are necessary for determining, for example, the genus, the species and the strain of the previously unidentified organism.
  • the Wylie and Naccarato patents describe automated and semi-automated apparatus that utilize re-usable streaking tools similar to the hand streaking tools mentioned above, without describing a suitable system or mechanism for that apparatus to determine, in three dimensional space, the precise location of the surface of the medium.
  • the height of medium, such as agar, within a plate will fluctuate depending upon many factors. For example, not only do different plate and solid growth culture medium suppliers invariably produce agar plates, for example, with a wide variety of surface heights from one supplier to the next, but even the same suppliers tend to supply their own plates with varying heights of media. Also, different compositions and ages of media used for this purpose tend also to produce plates with different media surface heights. Therefore, and due to such fluctuations in height, it is generally not possible for an automated streaking apparatus to rely upon the height of the surface of media in all plates to be the same.
  • an inoculating device for example, of such an automated apparatus to rely on being able to place inoculum upon the surface of media at the same location in three dimensional space for every plate to be processed thereby, and significant difficulties and complexities can be introduced in an apparatus that does.
  • the method and apparatus of the present invention may find use in any laboratory to simply provide a process, for any purpose, for locating the surface of solid growth culture medium in a plate.
  • spatial references throughout this specification will generally be based upon a plate ultimately being inoculated and streaked in an automated streaking apparatus in an upright orientation, with the surface of the medium in the plate being generally flat and horizontal. With this environment as the basis, the apparatus and some parts thereof may then be defined with reference to the “horizontal”, allowing further references to “upper” or “upwardly” and “lower” or “downwardly”, and also to the “vertical”.
  • the present invention provides a method for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate in a plate work position, the plate work position including a sensor and having a datum level fixed in one dimension (z), the method including:
  • the surface of a medium in a plate which plate is in its normal, generally horizontal orientation, can thus be located in at least the z dimension by virtue of the determination of the surface positional reference.
  • This effectively determines the height of the medium in the plate, at least with reference to the datum level.
  • the datum level will be a level (or a surface) that forms a part of a plate platform upon which the plate can be clamped and supported. Therefore, in this preferred form, the determination of the surface positional reference effectively determines the height of the medium with reference to the plate platform upon which it rests. This is useful in that the referencing of the medium in this manner then permits another, possibly unrelated, apparatus to operatively interact with the surface of the medium with some precision, as would be required where the invention is used in an automated streaking apparatus (as will be outlined below).
  • the medium height is not sensed by the sensor across its full extent, but is only sensed in a sensing region which is a part of that full extent.
  • the method senses the medium surface within a sensing region and measures the distance to the medium surface within that sensing region. In practice, this measured distance is likely to be an average over the area of the sensing region, given the likelihood of the distance varying across that region due to the height of the surface varying due to surface imperfections and the like.
  • a preferred use for the method of the present invention is in the inoculation and streaking of the medium in the plate, which generally requires the determination of the location in three dimensional space of a line across the surface of the medium, and not just the determination of a point (or region) in one dimensional space, for the purpose of spreading an inoculum along that line and then locating a streaking tool along that line (sometimes referred to as an “action line”).
  • the present invention thus also provides a method for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate in a plate work position, the plate work position including a sensor and having a notional action line fixed in two dimensions (x,y) in a predetermined position and having a datum level fixed in one dimension (z), the method including:
  • the method includes the additional step of setting an upper detection limit and a lower detection limit, in some forms with the upper detection limit above the datum level and the lower detection limit below the datum level, to define a detection range between the upper and lower limits.
  • the use of such a detection range can be adopted in conjunction with either the method for the determination of the surface positional reference alone or the method for the determination of the representative surface line from the surface positional reference.
  • a detection range of this type is an arbitrary range and thus the upper and lower limits of the detection range can be set arbitrarily.
  • a detection range can provide a calibration opportunity and allows the identification of, for example, multiple calibration sub-ranges to be applied within the detection range. For example, in some forms of the invention it may not be necessary or desirable for the method to be able to determine if a plate positioned in the plate work position still includes its lid thereon, or perhaps has been placed in the plate work position upside down.
  • the senor will not function if the detectable height of the plate in the plate work position is outside this narrow range, due to the sensor detecting either the surface of the plate lid or the surface of the plate bottom.
  • the method may be able to provide an alarm, for example, if a lidded or empty plate is placed in the plate work position. If a suitably broad enough detection range has been set, the sensor will thus sense the presence of the lid wall or the bottom wall, and will measure the distance to that surface rather than to the surface of medium in the plate.
  • the calibration sub-ranges can cause the identification (by virtue of the determination of the surface positional reference and its presence in one of the alarm calibration sub-ranges) of an alarm condition, as well as allow for the proper functioning of the method.
  • the detection range can be set at about 30 mm, with the upper limit set 20 mm above the datum level and the lower limit set 10 mm below the datum level.
  • a lidded plate in either orientation may produce a surface positional reference at about 7 mm below the upper limit
  • a de-lidded upright plate may produce a surface positional reference (for its medium surface) at about 14 mm below the upper limit
  • a de-lidded but empty plate may produce a surface positional reference at about 18 mm below the upper limit (which is only the thickness of the bottom wall of the plate above the datum level).
  • the present invention thus also provides a method for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate in a plate work position, the plate work position including a sensor and having a datum level fixed in one dimension (z), the method including:
  • the present invention may also provide a method for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate in a plate work position, the plate work position including a sensor and having a notional action line fixed in two dimensions (x,y) in a predetermined position and having a datum level fixed in one dimension (z), the method including:
  • the datum level is fixed and is thus a known parameter in the apparatus.
  • the datum level is fixed as the uppermost surface of a platform configured to hold the plate in the plate work position, the uppermost surface thus being that surface immediately below the plate.
  • the platform is itself preferably fixed in the z direction, such that its location in the z direction is constant and known, regardless of whether the platform is required to move in the x or y directions as a part of its normal operation.
  • an ability to regularly verify that this location has not altered such as by being able to verify this on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, or being able to verify this prior to every operational run of the method and apparatus of the invention, or even prior to (although this is unlikely) each measurement being taken.
  • an ability to regularly verify that this location has not altered such as by being able to verify this on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, or being able to verify this prior to every operational run of the method and apparatus of the invention, or even prior to (although this is unlikely) each measurement being taken.
  • the sensor can be any type of sensor that is able to be programmed and controlled to sense the presence of a surface in the manner described above and then to measure the distance to the sensor, ideally from a fixed datum point that is a part of the sensor.
  • the sensor may for example be a laser sensor or an ultrasonic sensor.
  • the sensor includes a programmable controller that is able to additionally perform the referencing tasks mentioned above.
  • the senor is an ultrasonic sensing device that includes an ultrasonic beam focusing element that is capable of providing a focused beam on the medium surface, preferably within the sensing region mentioned above.
  • this sensing region is thus preferably central to the predetermined notional action line also mentioned above.
  • the sensor is preferably rigidly mounted to a main frame, thereby defining the general location of the plate work position.
  • the sensor is ideally mounted so that it is above the plate work position and is operatively adjacent a positioned plate held immediately therebelow in a plate platform, the positioned plate having its medium surface open upwardly.
  • the present invention also provides an apparatus for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate in a plate work position, the plate work position including a sensor and having a datum level fixed in one dimension (z), wherein the sensor is capable of sensing the medium surface for the positioned plate and measuring the distance to the medium surface, the apparatus also including means for referencing the measured distance to the datum level to determine a surface positional reference, relative to the datum level, in one dimension (z) for the surface of the medium in the positioned plate.
  • the present invention further provides an apparatus for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate in a plate work position, the plate work position including a sensor and having a notional action line fixed in two dimensions (x,y) in a predetermined position and having a datum level fixed in one dimension (z), wherein the sensor is capable of sensing the medium surface within a sensing region for the positioned plate and measuring an average distance to the medium surface within that sensing region, the apparatus also including means for referencing the measured distance to the datum level to determine a surface positional reference relative to the datum level in one dimension (z) for the surface of the medium in the positioned plate and then using the surface positional reference and the notional action line to determine a line in three dimensions (x,y,z) that is representative of a line across the surface of the medium in the positioned plate.
  • the present invention also provides an apparatus for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate in a plate work position, the plate work position including a sensor and having a datum level fixed in one dimension (z), wherein the sensor has an upper limit and a lower limit to define a detection range between the upper and lower limits, and is capable of sensing, within the detection range, the medium surface for the positioned plate and measuring the distance to the medium surface, the apparatus including means for referencing the measured distance to the datum level to provide a surface positional reference relative to the datum level in one dimension (z) for the surface of the medium in the positioned plate.
  • the present invention may also provide an apparatus for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium in a plate in a plate work position, the plate work position including a sensor and having a notional action line fixed in two dimensions (x,y) in a predetermined position and also having a datum level fixed in one dimension (z), wherein the sensor has an upper limit and a lower limit to define a detection range between the upper and lower limits, and is capable of sensing the medium surface, within the detection range, within a sensing region for the positioned plate and measuring an average distance to the medium surface within that sensing region, the apparatus including means for referencing the measured distance to the datum level to determine a surface positional reference relative to the datum level in one dimension (z) for the surface of the medium in the positioned plate, and then using the surface positional reference and the notional action line to determine a line in three dimensions (x,y,z) that is representative of a line across the surface of the medium in the positioned plate.
  • the surface positional reference, and the representative line, for the surface of a medium in a positioned plate will be specific to the medium in that positioned plate only, and may be (and is actually likely to be) a different surface positional reference and representative line compared to the surface of the next plate processed in the plate work position.
  • the method and apparatus of the present invention will additionally find use with half-plates (often referred to as bi-plates) where the two halves of a plate are separated by an upstanding diametric wall, and each half containing a medium whose height is to be determined in the manner described above.
  • the methods described above can be modified to also permit detection of, or confirmation of, the location of the upstanding wall, to then trigger the operation of the method of the invention twice in relation to that plate, on both halves.
  • the method could of course be modified to simply permit the apparatus to be otherwise informed of the existence of a bi-plate, to subsequently trigger operation of the method on both halves.
  • the method and apparatus of the present invention is primarily suitable for use with an automated streaking apparatus, ideally of the type generally described in the present applicant's international patent application filed on 11 Jan. 2008 titled “Method and Apparatus for Inoculating and Streaking a Medium in a Plate”, claiming priority from Australian provisional patent application 2007900146, the full content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
  • an automated streaking apparatus generally includes:
  • the method and apparatus of the present invention is intended to be suitable for use as the sensor for the plate work position of the above described automated streaking apparatus.
  • FIG. 1 is a perspective view from above of an apparatus in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, showing a plate platform near a plate work position;
  • FIG. 2 is a perspective view from above of the apparatus of FIG. 1 , showing a plate held in the plate platform in the plate work position;
  • FIG. 3 is a perspective view from above of a part of the apparatus of FIG. 1 , showing the apparatus in use and a three dimensional action line;
  • FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the apparatus of FIG. 1 in use, showing the various geometric and mathematical relationships.
  • FIGS. 1 and 2 Illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 is an apparatus 10 for locating the surface of a solid growth culture medium 12 having a surface 13 in a plate 14 in a plate work position A, with the medium 12 and the plate 14 not shown in FIG. 1 .
  • FIG. 1 shows a plate platform 30 able to receive a plate 14 in a centralized and clamped position in order to move the plate in the direction of arrow X into the plate work position A.
  • the plate platform 30 is mounted on a support 31 for sliding movement along a guide rail 33 in response to suitable controllers.
  • the plate platform 30 includes a plate clamping member 32 in the form of three movable lugs operated by a camming device (not shown), which lugs are preferably also able to function as a plate centralizing means for centralizing the position of the plate 14 on the platform 30 . This can be useful for subsequent operations with the plate 14 .
  • the plate work position A includes a notional action line B (shown by a broken line in FIG. 1 ) fixed in two dimensions (x,y) in a predetermined position.
  • a notional action line B shown by a broken line in FIG. 1
  • the notional action line B is fixed in two dimensions (x,y) in a predetermined position.
  • This action line B is herein referred to as being a “notional” action line given that it will not be a visible action line and also will not have a determined position in three dimensional space until the location of the surface 13 of the medium 12 in the plate 14 is determined.
  • the plate work position A includes a datum level C, which in FIG. 1 is shown as the uppermost surface upon the plate platform 30 (eventually to be located, as is evident in FIG. 2 , within the plate work position A).
  • the apparatus 10 includes a sensor 20 that includes an ultrasonic sensing device 22 having an ultrasonic beam focusing element that is capable of providing a focused beam on the medium surface 12 , preferably within a sensing region (not identified in FIGS. 2 and 3 ) that is central to the predetermined notional action line B.
  • the sensor 20 is rigidly mounted via a sensor support arm 24 to a main frame 26 , thereby defining the general location of the plate work position A.
  • the sensor 20 is ideally mounted so that it is above the plate work position A and is operatively adjacent the plate 14 held immediately therebelow in the plate platform 30 , the plate 14 having its surface 13 open upwardly as is evident in FIG. 3 .
  • the method of this embodiment of the present invention thus requires the sensor 20 to sense the medium surface 13 for the positioned plate 14 and measure the distance to the medium surface 13 . Then, the measured distance is referenced to the datum level C to determine a surface positional reference relative to the datum level C in one dimension (z) for the surface 13 in the positioned plate 14 .
  • the surface 13 can thus be located in at least the z dimension by virtue of the determination of this surface positional reference. This effectively determines the height of the medium 12 in the plate 14 , at least with reference to that datum level C.
  • the datum level C is a surface that forms a part of the plate platform 30 upon which the plate 14 is clamped and supported. Therefore, in this embodiment, the determination of the surface positional reference effectively determines the height of the medium 12 with reference to the plate platform 30 upon which it rests.
  • This surface positional reference can then be used, together with the notional action line B (from FIG. 1 ) to determine the line D in three dimensions (x,y,z) that is representative of a line across the surface 13 in the positioned plate.
  • an inoculating device 50 can be brought to the plate work position A to inoculate the surface 12 in the manner described above.
  • the dispensing tip 52 can be brought as close as desired to the representative line D (and thus the surface 12 ) to dispense inoculum therealong.
  • the same benefits are of course available for operatively interacting a streaking device (not shown) having a streaking tool (also not shown) upon the surface 13 .
  • the additional step of setting an upper detection limit and a lower detection limit in some forms with the upper detection limit above the datum level C and the lower detection limit below the datum level C, to define a detection range between the upper and lower limits.
  • the use of such a detection range can be adopted in conjunction with either the method for the determination of the surface positional reference (alone) or the method for the determination of the representative surface line D (as has been illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 for this embodiment of the invention) from the surface positional reference.
  • FIG. 4 In order to assist with an explanation of the use of such a detection range, but also to assist with an understanding of the mathematical and geometric processes described above, reference is made to the schematic illustration of FIG. 4 (which generally utilizes different reference numerals to those used above for FIGS. 1 to 3 ).
  • FIG. 4 there is shown a sensor 100 located above the surface 102 of a medium 104 in a plate 106 .
  • the plate 106 is shown seated upright upon a plate platform 108 that is used to provide a fixed datum level C.
  • the sensor 100 is an ultrasonic sensor that emits an acoustic signal towards the surface 102 via the beam 110 to form a sensing region 112 .
  • the sensor is operated to measure the distance d to the surface 102 from its fixed datum point 101 , the distance d being calculated by the sensor 100 as an average of the distances across the sensing region 112 .
  • the measured distance d is then referenced to the datum level C, which is thus a known distance c from the sensor 100 .
  • This referencing permits the determination of a surface positional reference p, relative to the datum level C, in one dimension (z) for the surface 102 in the positioned plate 106 .
  • the surface positional reference p is a very close approximation to the depth of the medium 104 in the plate 106 , due to the use of the uppermost surface of the plate platform 108 as the datum level C, the measure only being an approximation due to the thickness of the plate bottom.
  • a detection range R having an upper limit R 1 and a lower limit R 2 , which have been set arbitrarily at levels above and below the datum level C.
  • the detection range R could have been arbitrarily set at levels r 1 and r 2 for a situation where it is not necessary or desirable to determine if, for example, the plate 106 still included its lid thereon, or perhaps had been placed on the platform 108 empty of medium.
  • the sensor 100 will not function if the detectable upwardly exposed surface of a plate is outside this narrow range, due to the sensor 100 detecting either the surface of the plate lid or the surface of the plate bottom.
  • the senor 100 is able to sense the presence of the lid wall or the bottom wall as they will be within the detection range set by the upper limit R 1 and the lower limit R 2 , and will measure the distance to that surface rather than to the surface of the medium in the plate.

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US12/520,969 2007-01-12 2008-01-11 Method and Apparatus for Locating the Surface of Solid Growth Culture Media in a Plate Abandoned US20100097893A1 (en)

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AU2007900147 2007-01-12
AU2007900147A AU2007900147A0 (en) 2007-01-12 Method and apparatus for locating the surface of solid growth media in a plate
PCT/AU2008/000014 WO2008083437A1 (en) 2007-01-12 2008-01-11 Method and apparatus for locating the surface of solid growth culture media in a plate

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US20210062132A1 (en) * 2018-01-29 2021-03-04 Yamaha Hatsudoki Kabushiki Kaisha Apparatus for treating biological material

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DE102012202570B4 (de) * 2012-02-20 2017-06-08 Martin Grüne Vorrichtung sowie Verfahren zum Erzeugen von Zellhydrogelschichten
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