This article describes what are carriers are and how to use them in a FluentControl™.
A carrier is a removable part on the instrument’s deck that can be used to hold either one or more pieces of labware in place or it can be used to hold other carriers. In FluentControl™, carriers are by default saved on the Base Worktable whereas labware is saved in the script. Carriers can either be grid based or non-grid based.
In FluentControl™, carriers can either be grid based or non-grid based.
Grid based carriers in FluentControl™
Grid based carriers can be fitted to the deck at pre-defined grid positions that are spaced 25mm apart. Grid based carriers are always linked to a grid position on the deck. The number of numbered grid positions depends on the instrument size:
Fluent 1080: 72 Grids
Fluent 780: 52 Grids
Fluent 480: 32 Grids
Grid positions with numbers are accessible for pipetting whereas grid position A & B on the left side and grid position Y & Z position on the right side of the instrument are meant to be used for deck extensions that are only accessible to the RGA arm.
Non-grid based carriers in FluentControl
Non-grid based carriers definitions are used for device carriers that can be freely integrated to the deck, for example at the back, on the side or below the worktable.
There is a flexible integration procedure for carrier placement of non-grid based carriers that is described in more detail with a separate article “How to integrate non-grid based devices in FluentControl™.
Non-grid based carrier definitions must meet the following criteria:
- It must have attribute IsGridBased set to off. (at Carrier Definition -> Custom Attributes))
- Reference offset for X,Y,Z must have values 0,0,0. (at Carrier Definition -> Dimensions)
- Location deviceSite01 to deviceSite50 need to be activated as allowed locations. (at Carrier Definition -> Allowed Locations)
For both, grid based and non-grid based carriers, their properties are defined by the settings in the carrier definition that can be accessed either by right-click the carrier at the Control bar and select Open or right-click the carrier at the worktable window and select Edit.
Here’s a brief overview of the most relevant carrier definition settings:
At General Settings one can set the name of the carrier definition. If the carrier is a device, it can be linked to a driver. Activate the setting Accessible to pipetting arm to enable pipetting to a labware that is placed on this carrier.
At Dimensions there are the Reference Offset, Dimensions and Bounding Boxes of the carrier. The following section Site Definitions contains a list of all carrier sites including their offset, size, rotation, location name and allowed robot vector orientation. In general, all offsets are measured from the left, front, bottom corner of the carrier towards the right side in X, towards the back in Y and towards the top in Z direction.
The section Robot Vectors contains the coordinates of all vectors that are linked to the carrier sites on the carrier. Make sure to select the correct arm (RGA) at the Move Tool and carrier site and vector orientation when accessing the coordinates of a specific vector.
At Allowed Labware Types, one can select which labware type is allowed to place on top of the carrier site of the carrier. Whereas the section Allowed Location defines where the current carrier can be placed, for example if you have a Nest carrier definition, the allowed locations are supposed to be the segment carrier sites where the current open Nest carrier can be placed.
Custom Attributes has various settings in a list and more attributes can be added from a dropdown. For example, if the attribute Lid set to off on a Nest carrier, the RGA will automatically uncover the lid when a plate with lid arrives on that carrier. Or the attribute Speed can be added from the dropdown list and allows to modify the RGA speed in percent for that carrier.
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