Robotics in pharmacy automation

Automation of clinical laboratories is just the beginning of a new era that has started with the initiation of programmable robots says Dr Ramalatha Marimuthu, Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Robots in laboratory, life science and pharmaceutical applications perform tasks at rates beyond human capability. It is hence, definitely essential for robotics to reach out to every area of science and technology and every nook and corner of the world. In the next ten years, the humanoids will be playing an important role in helping school students learn, engineers to create and medical personnel to provide more efficient healthcare. In addition hazardous operations and environments would and should be manned by robots. Though the reach of this technology may be in different levels in different parts of the earth, the impact of robotics has already started to be increasingly known almost everywhere including laboratory automation. Laboratory automation is a growing field for robotics, from drug discovery to pharma and medical device manufacturing, to performing blood sample testing.

Since clinical laboratories started to use robotic technologies in the early 1980s to administrate their thousands of samples a day, automated systems have become a known thing in the industry. By increasingly and continuously performing procedures that would have been done without them, these modern automated robotic systems can increase the throughput of a laboratory manifold, free up researchers from repetitive tasks and allow them to contribute their time to more conceptual and productive work, and monitor and supervise the raw data manufactured. Pharma companies engage such robots to passage biological or chemical trials around to create new chemical products or to test pharmaceutical value of existing chemical materials.

Due to the potential hazards and high volumes, some hospitals and larger healthcare clinics utilise robotics to dispense medication. Thanks to technology, these innovations have come into important roles in potentially dangerous surroundings that may be in close proximity to biological hazards, or at situations where immediate action is required for patients. Robotic pharmacies are expanding rapidly within hospitals and clinics. Robotics has thereby resorted to assemble and package an array of medical functions as well as performing a number of automated procedures like conducting blood tests, X-rays, providing first aid in ambulance cars, etc. Several companies are servicing that market and the interest level will only increase.

It all translates to whether the robotic machines can be adjusted to a series of motions and movements based on inputs fed to them in advance, for example, the specific amount of rays that should be passed to the human and carry on to the placing of film and so on, extended to- placing a film if a person is there, to identify as soon as the plate is filled and switch on the machine, find out if X-ray has been done and finally remove the film and process it.

For any of the robot connected work in such automated lab scenarios, monitoring system is a random check. Whether it is possible for them to use human cognisance depends on the adjustment on their position. So the inputs have to be fed in. For example, while discussing the feasibility of robots in conducting X-rays, with the help of systems that can study and then feed inputs, these machines can be used to move chair and positions, correct positions of leg and toe can be identified to build an overall control system and rest can be controlled by the machine itself.

Advanced robotics can also be used to completely automate the process of science in laboratories. For example, in pharma applications, hospitals use robots to fuse dangerous cancer drugs and those related with radioactivity. Because of the high number of samples that need analysis and the amount of data collection required, the process and costs are easily authenticated with robotics. Similar to its applications of performing blood tests and X-rays, robotics can be used to connect all of this together and provide assistance in ambulance cars as well where quick action and first aid is considered very important.

Essentially, all the manual activity of handling the equipment and doing the work defined by standard procedures can be performed automatically, allowing humans to invest their time in more cognitive jobs. One of the advantages to such automation procedures is faster processing (though not necessarily faster than a human operator).

Typically, robotics and automation in such laboratories contribute towards productivity, as machines are not likely to get redundant due to routine procedures and hence lack in quality and efficiency. Human constraints, such as speed, too are eliminated as a reason to worry about as robots can work continuously without the possibility of experiencing boredom and hence being subject to carelessness or irresponsibility.

However, the entire process of automation can turn out to be expensive as the costs of a sample assessment and motion study can be high in itself, let alone the maintenance needed for these robotic machines. There are a few techniques that haven’t been automated yet.

Automation of clinical laboratories is just the beginning of a new era that has started with the initiation of programmable robots, which can be fed the inputs and expected to deliver the desired outputs systematically. The decades to come will witness certain remarkable developments in laboratory automation and integration with the help of robotic technologies that will indeed enhance the efficiency and bring down the costs of laboratory testing. Although robotic technology has been in place in the laboratory setting for over two decades, it represents moderately fresh technology as compared to the clinical laboratory setups in the 1990s that would just consist of automated sample delivery, coding, processing, analysis, and reporting.

Robotics now, not just has emerged as a novel and advanced field in pharmacy automation but also has gained much known admiration in the industry. Their applicability in different fields of pharma industry is appreciated. It is accepted that in future the robotics would play a vital role for the development and growth of pharma sciences. With a history of over two decades, the technology once confined to clinical laboratories, robotic machines have found their way into the testing with the insatiable demands of the pharma industry that are helping to drive labs into the automated world of industrial production lines.