Image Guided Autonomous Optical Manipulation of Cell Groups
Main Participants: Satyandra
K. Gupta, Sagar Chowdhury, and Wolfgang Losert
Sponsors: This project is sponsored by NSF
Keywords: Optical micromanipulation, optical tweezers,
cell manipulation, and robotics
Motivation and Goals
The objective of this research is to create computational foundation,
methods, and tools for efficient and autonomous optical
micromanipulation using microsphere ensembles as grippers. The
envisioned system utilizes a holographic optical tweezer, which uses
multiple focused optical traps to position microspheres in
three-dimensional space. Our approach involves the following research
components. First, it provides an experimentally validated
optical-tweezers based workstation for concurrent manipulation of
multiple cells. Second, it provides algorithms for on-line monitoring
of workspace to support autonomous manipulation. Finally, it provides
real-time image-guided motion planning strategies for transporting
microspheres ensembles.
This research is expected to lead to a new way of autonomously
manipulating difficult-to-trap or sensitive objects using microspheres
ensembles as reconfigurable grippers. The on-going work in our lab is
making fundamental advances in several cyber physical systems areas by
providing new approaches to micromanipulations, fast and accurate
algorithms for on-line monitoring of moving microscale objects, and
real-time motion planning algorithms to transport particle ensembles.
The ability to quickly and accurately manipulate individual cells with
minimal training will enable researchers to conduct basic research at
the cellular scale. Control over cell-cell interactions will enable
unprecedented insights into cell signaling pathways and open up new
avenues for medical diagnosis and treatment. The integration of
research with education is training students with a strong background
in emerging robotics technologies and the inner workings of cells.
Contact
For additional information and to obtain copies of the above papers
please contact:
Dr. Satyandra K. Gupta
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute for Systems Research
University of Maryland
College Park, Md-20742
Phone: 301-405-5306
FAX: 301-314-9477
WWW: http://www.glue.umd.edu/~skgupta/