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Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

venturebeat.com

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Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#21

Post by silly_giraffe »

willcanine wrote: post #14
rubidium wrote: post #3

For those who are un-aware of laboratory automation, this is not a new industry. There are MANY automated liquid handlers on the market. Beckman, Eppendorf, Hamilton, and Tecan are the larger names. What's new is the way Opentrons is offering value: thru low-cost hardware and open-source software. With the OT2 they ditched the use of a manual pipetters with dedicated 8 and 1 channel pipetters (a good move). The softw…

Thanks! Through user research we learned that most labs dont have robots today because 1. they are too expensive and 2. they dont have space in their lab for the huge machines currently available. Thats why we focused on low-cost and compact; the OT-2 is designed to fit on 1/2 of a standard lab bench so biologists can work alongside their robot. OT-One was deff for the DIY crowd and there are lots of great hacks folk…

If I could add a personal number three to your list: most robots are far from robust. Running a robot becomes a full time job and require a dedicated guru to maintain it. The activation energy to use the equipment means that you must be desperate enough to deal with the pain rather than do the job manually.

Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#22

Post by laserson »

Congrats! We've had a good amount of fun playing with the OT-One (and also some frustrations). I think the large range of volumes is great, along with what seems to be more streamlined/accurate pipetting. I think the enclosure is also a solid feature.

One of my favorite features is the ability to use a simple Python API to define a protocol. Will this still be the case or do people have to use the GUI?

Is there a reasonable (cheap) path to upgrade?

Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#23

Post by willcanine »

silly_giraffe wrote: post #21
willcanine wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Through user research we learned that most labs dont have robots today because 1. they are too expensive and 2. they dont have space in their lab for the huge machines currently available. Thats why we focused on low-cost and compact; the OT-2 is designed to fit on 1/2 of a standard lab bench so biologists can work alongside their robot. OT-One was deff for the DIY crowd and there are lots of great hacks folk…

If I could add a personal number three to your list: most robots are far from robust. Running a robot becomes a full time job and require a dedicated guru to maintain it. The activation energy to use the equipment means that you must be desperate enough to deal with the pain rather than do the job manually.

totally agree. lowering that "activation energy" is one of the main focuses of our UX design team, and making sure that the machine doesn't break at the smallest bump is a core part of our hardware engineering philosophy. thanks for the input, very validating for us :)

Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#24

Post by willcanine »

laserson wrote: post #22

Congrats! We've had a good amount of fun playing with the OT-One (and also some frustrations). I think the large range of volumes is great, along with what seems to be more streamlined/accurate pipetting. I think the enclosure is also a solid feature. One of my favorite features is the ability to use a simple Python API to define a protocol. Will this still be the case or do people have to use the GUI? Is there a rea…

hey, thanks! to answer your questions:

1 - yes, our python API can still be your main tool for creating protocols, no one needs to use the GUI if they dont want to. In fact, OT-2 runs a jupyter notebook onboard so you can just connect over wifi / USB, pull up the notebook in your browser, and live code to the robot (as well as run a python script through the App same w/ OT-One).

2 - yes, all OT-One users get a $2000 discount on the OT-2, so starting price for you is $2k :)

Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#25

Post by willcanine »

Ccecil wrote: post #15

Congrats! Are the newer machines still using Smoothieware?

yes, we love smoothieware! it's existence is one of the main reasons we're able to offer this tech at such an unheard-of low price. we've forked it (available here: https://github.com/Opentrons/SmoothiewareOT) to work with our OT-2 motor controller, which has more stepper drivers than the smoothieboard and is designed to fit on the head of the robot to minimize cabling. full board design (as well as all of our electronics designs) are going up on github in the next few weeks!

Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#26

Post by willcanine »

the-dude wrote: post #18
willcanine wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, we will be open-sourcing the hardware, though not in quite the same way as with the OT-One. All the OT-One parts are off the shelf, 3D printed, or laser-cut, so putting all the files on github makes a lot of sense. But the OT-2 is a lot of custom parts injection molded / extruded / CNC'd by our production team in Shenzhen, and it is a lot harder to both share those designs on our end, and to make anything out of…

Sounds like no.

sorry if my answer is confusing. the short answer is: yes, there will be more (and more in-depth) open-source documentation of OT-2 than with OT-One, and not just limited to dumping everything in a github repo. This is rolling out in the coming weeks as things get finalized.

Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#27

Post by willcanine »

skosuri wrote: post #20
willcanine wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! Would love to work with you! We are already shipping OT-2 robots, and right now with the amount of demand we have there is a 6 week lead time (though it is increasing fast). The 96-well head wont be an addition to this robot because it would make it too top heavy and risk tipping it over -- best we can fit on this guy is the 8-channel pipette already available. We'll start considering things like a 96-well…

OK. Will put in an order soon. Sri

awesome! excited to work with you!

Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#28

Post by Ccecil »

willcanine wrote: post #25
Ccecil wrote: post #15

Congrats! Are the newer machines still using Smoothieware?

yes, we love smoothieware! it's existence is one of the main reasons we're able to offer this tech at such an unheard-of low price. we've forked it (available here: https://github.com/Opentrons/SmoothiewareOT ) to work with our OT-2 motor controller, which has more stepper drivers than the smoothieboard and is designed to fit on the head of the robot to minimize cabling. full board design (as well as all of our elect…

Great to hear. I work very closely with the project (hardware QA), as well as RepRap. I have followed your machine for quite some time. I have mentioned it to pretty much everyone I know who is in the field of chemistry/biology or does fluid handling.

I bet things are a lot easier now that Smoothie has true 6 axis :)

It is great to see so many OSHW projects get going in the last few years. Excited to see what the next few years brings.

Re: Opentrons raises $10M for scientists to automate lab experiments with robotics

#29

Post by skosuri »

willcanine wrote: post #27
skosuri wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK. Will put in an order soon. Sri

awesome! excited to work with you!

Order #: 1304 It's for a stealth newco that we just started. Looking forward to playing!
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