LABHAND PAYLOAD FOR INSTANTEYE SUAS PLATFORM FOR CONTINUOUS AUTONOMOUS INDOOR TRANSPORT OF LABORATORY CONSUMABLES

The contractor will develop and commercialize a complete autonomous drone based system for moving microplates and similar lab consumables within High Throughput Screening HTS laboratories supplementing and perhapseventually replacing robotic arms which currently perform HTS autonomous processing of samples This innovativeapplication of small autonomous drones to HTS facilities will provide the speed accuracy and reliability of roboticarms without the associated cost prohibitive safety requirements limited work envelope and operation repairexpertise required by existing robotic infrastructure The Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of thisinnovation by building flight hardware and performing pick up transport and drop off of a lab microplate The ultimateoutcome of this project will be novel products that increase HTS throughput capabilities and enhance the economicviability of HTS at small government and academic research labs thereby enhancing public health