Systems and methods are described for a non-contact method for positioning a tip of an object. A light beam of known dimensions is projected and a position of the tip of the object relative to the light beam is adjusted. Light scatter indicative of the tip of the object being positioned within the dimensions of the light beam is detected and a position of the tip of the object is determined based at least in part on the known dimensions of the light beam and the detected light scatter.

The present invention relates to a method for determining the position of a robotic arm in an automatic liquid handling system in which a measurement probe with a first electrode is arranged on the robotic arm and, together with a second electrode formed by at least part of a working area or at least part of a container or container carrier forms a measurement capacitor that is operatively connected to a measurement unit for measuring an impedance, in particular a capacitance of the measurement capacitor. The method involves moving the measurement probe along a first path, detecting a first change in the impedance, in particular in the capacitance of the measurement capacitor at a first point on the first path, and defining at least one first reference spatial coordinate for a control unit of the robotic arm on the basis of the first point on the first path.

The present invention provides a disposable ultra-filtration system comprising a disposable pipetting tip and a disposable ultra-filtration cartridge, wherein the cartridge includes a membrane filtration chamber and a dead-end channel. In use, a piston in the pipette pressurizes air within the channel; the pressurized air can subsequently move the piston and cause a reverse flow back through the membrane of the cartridge, unplugging the pores thereof. Also disclosed is an automated workstation incorporating the disposable ultra-filtration system, and a system comprising the automated workstation, useful for measuring the free therapeutic drug concentration and free hormone concentration in a sample.

A pipetting system includes: a pipetting device; a pipetting container including a plurality of pipetting positions into each of which the pipetting device pipettes liquid; and a positional relation detector configured to detect a positional relation between a front-end position of a tip and each of the pipetting positions. The pipetting device includes circuitry configured to, when a pipetting switch that orders pipetting is turned on, on condition that the front-end position of the tip detected by the positional relation detector is located at one of pipetting positions that is indicated by a pipetting pattern set up in advance, allow pipetting corresponding to the pipetting pattern, and on condition that the front-end position of the tip detected by the positional relation detector does not correspond to a corresponding one of pipetting positions that is indicated by the pipetting pattern set up in advance, disallow the pipetting.

A measuring apparatus usable in a liquid handling apparatus, and method, for detecting a deformed pipetting container using a first and a second measuring device, the measuring apparatus being configured to determine the position of an end region of the pipetting container as a f unction of a position of a measurement support section of the pipetting container as relative position data in a data storage device, so that subsequently the position of the end region of the pipetting container can be determined by measuring the position of the measurement support section and from the relative position data.

A blood gas analyzer (1) for performing a measurement on analyte parameters in a blood sample, such as a whole blood sample, aspirated into the blood gas analyzer (1) from a handheld blood sample container (100) comprises a controller (8), and a sensor system (5) for detecting a presence, a position and/or an orientation of the handheld blood sample container (100) relative to an inlet structure (12a/b). An aspiration system is provided for aspirating the blood sample from the handheld blood sample container (100), the aspiration system connectable to the handheld blood sample container (100). A user interface system is provided for outputting instructions to a user (102) of the blood gas analyzer (1), the instructions being selected among pre-stored sets of instructions. The controller (8) selects one of the at least two sets of pre-stored sets of instructions based on an assessment of a signal retrieved from the sensor system.

A sample analyzing apparatus for performing an optical-based measurement on a sample includes a housing, a first light source, excitation optics, a first light detector, emission optics, and a monitoring system, all of which are disposed in the housing. The monitoring system is configured for monitoring a movable component disposed in the housing. The monitoring system includes one or more light sources for illuminating the movable component, and one or more light detectors for detecting light reflected from the movable component in response to being illuminated.

The automatic analyzer includes a sample storage section for accommodating a plurality of samples, a reagent storage section for accommodating a plurality of reagents, an analysis section for carrying out an analysis by reacting the sample with the reagent, a display, a storage section for storing a setting of an operation item to be automatically executed, which is effective only at restarting, and a control section which displays a screen for setting the operation item to be automatically executed upon acceptance of power shutdown operation by an operator during the analysis on the display to accept the setting from the operator, and automatically executes or omits execution of the operation item to be automatically executed, which has been set by the operator in accordance with the setting read from the storage section at the restarting.

A method for determining the presence or absence of disposable pipette tips in pipette tip carriers on the work area of a laboratory workstation. Each of the pipette tip carriers has a support panel with receiving holes into each of which a disposable pipette tip can be inserted. The laboratory workstation for carrying out the method has a robot arm with at least one pipette which is designed to receive and dispose of disposable pipette tips. The laboratory workstation has a digital camera which is arranged on a support device and is operatively connected to an analyzing unit. The work area of the laboratory workstation can be completely imaged in at least one first direction using the digital camera.

The objective of this disclosure is to provide a dispensing apparatus that is capable of precisely dispense micro volume liquid samples without physically damaging the nozzle tip or the liquid containers. An example of the present disclosure images a droplet of a liquid sample, and dispenses the liquid sample using an image of the droplet.