CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority from earlier Japanese Patent Application No. 2016-127618 filed Jun. 28, 2016, the description of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a cell culture container, an automatic cell culture apparatus, a liquid container, a robot hand handling the container, and a robot system provided with the robot hand.

Related Art

In recent years, robots are being applied to worksites which are associated with medications or medical services. With this trend, isolators used for cell culture tasks and the like have been put into the market. Such an isolator includes a work area where a robot arm is placed so that an operator can externally give commands to the robot arm for cell culture tasks and the like. For example, a patent literature JP 4550101 B discloses a configuration in which materials to be consumed are delivered in and out to/from an automatic cell culture apparatus including an operation robot19, via a storage and retrieval section15. In this type of isolator, a robot arm is utilized to improve work efficiency of supplying materials to be consumed and the like handled by the robot arm. In this case, however, maintaining a sterilized state remains as an issue to be addressed.

For example, various kinds of cells isolated from living organisms are cultivated under an artificially simulated living body environment, and genes are transferred into the cells as necessary, to obtain abundant cells and various kinds of factors produced from the cells for use in medical treatment of various diseases. When these tasks are performed by a robot arm, a cell culture medium is assumed to be accommodated in a flask- or bottle-shaped container, with its opening portion being closed by a screw cap, for supply into the work area of the isolator. In this case, the tasks performed by the robot arm in the isolator involve placing the container at a predetermined work position, and grasping and rotating the cap with the end effector to open the cap, and then grasping the container body to transfer the culture medium inside the container to another container, such as a cultivation flask, bottle or laboratory dish.

Most of the culture containers used for automatic cell culture apparatuses for regenerative medicine are generally-used cell-cultivation containers. Such a generally-used cell-cultivation container has an upper portion in which a manufacturer name is indicated or an arrowed opening position is marked at the time of molding the cap; however, the textual information or the arrowed mark tends to be unclear. It is difficult to obtain containers having caps whose shape is suitable for use in automatic cell culture apparatuses or having a clearly indicated mark.

The motions taken by the automatic cell culture apparatus are something previously designed and mechanically controlled. When the series of motions for handling a culture container as mentioned above are iterated, reproducibility is quite high in the positional relationship between the cap and the container body. However, when grasping a cap, if the claws of the robot slide over the cap, an error may occur in the rotational position of the cap, disabling visual recognition of the screw position inside the cap. To cope with this, the positional relationship between the cap and the container body is identified such as by a camera or a sensor when opening/closing the cap. However, the accuracy of this identification is quite low. In fact, there are factors of increasing wear of the cap, such as use of a clutch when the cap is closed, excessive rotation of the cap when opened, or tasks of opening/closing the cap that disturb the directivity of the cap.

When the cap is started to be opened from a closed state, large torque is instantaneously required. This large torque, that is, a grip force of the claws, or rotation torque associated with the robot hand, imposes a large load to the robot hand.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Assuming that the type of task is as described above, the following issues to be addressed may arise.

(1) The container accommodating a culture medium, which should be in a sterilized state as a precondition, is needed to be supplied into the work area of the isolator without admixture of various bacteria from outside. After the culture medium is supplied, but before the robot arm starts the task of opening the container in the work area, it is necessary to confirm that the cap of the container is reliably fastened and the container is completely closed to prevent contamination of the work area due to the admixture of various germs or the like.

For example, if the cultivated cells are contaminated by another person's cells, the cultivated cells are no longer usable. Therefore, the cells or the solution in the bottle need to be prevented from leaking out into the work environment inside the isolator. To this end, it is necessary to confirm that the container is completely closed by the cap. The example taken herein deals with the tasks performed under a sterilized environment. However, aside from these tasks, confirming reliable fastening of a cap is necessary, in general, to prevent leakage of a solution or the like accommodated in the container.

(2) Considering ease of manufacture or cost reduction, the material used for the bottle-shaped container is assumed to be a resin, such as polyethylene terephthalate or polystyrene. A robot hand, on the other hand, is usually formed of metal having high rigidity, which is different from a human hand. Accordingly, when a robot hand grasps and rotates the cap of a container, with the container body being fixed, if the grasped state is incomplete and friction is caused between the robot hand and the cap, the surface of the cap made of resin may be abraded by the robot hand to thereby produce wear debris. Production of such wear debris, which leads to contamination inside the working chamber, is needed to be prevented. The structure of the cap can cause positional displacement when the robot hand opens and closes the cap in two opposite direction.

The present disclosure has been made in light of the circumstances set forth above and has an object to provide a liquid container facilitating the opening task performed by a robot hand, a robot hand having a configuration suitable for the opening task for the liquid container, and a robot system including the robot hand, and to provide a cell culture container facilitating confirmation on the closed state of the container, and an automatic cell culture apparatus using the container.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a cell culture container includes a container body accommodating a cell culture medium; a cap mounted to an opening portion of the container body; and a mark used for confirming correctness as to a closed state of the cap. In the cell culture container, provision of the mark enables easy confirmation on the correctness of the closed state of the cap which is mounted to the opening portion of the container body accommodating a cell culture medium.

The cell culture container of the present disclosure may include a torque receiver provided to the cap, and a reference mark provided to the container body. In the cell culture container, provision of the torque receiver and the reference mark enables confirmation on the closed state of the cap, based on the positional relationship between them.

The cell culture container of the present disclosure may include a protrusion provided to an outer peripheral surface of the cap. The protrusion can receive torque applied to the cap during an opening task performed on the cell culture container.

According to the cell culture container of the present disclosure the protrusion may have a length of 1 mm or more.

According to the cell culture container of the present disclosure provided with the protrusion, the protrusion reduces displacement during an opening task or a closing task, or reduces load during an opening task. Specifically, provision of the protrusion enables confirmation, in terms of the appearance, on the starting and ending positions of the thread ridge or the thread groove formed on the inside of the cap. More specifically, since both the starting and ending positions of the thread at the opening portion of the container body can be confirmed from the appearance, the container can be opened or closed with only a motion associated with the thread pitch. Further, the container body can be firmly fixed via planar cell observation surfaces of the container body and each having a comparatively large area, and, if handled by a robot hand, for example, the shapes of the cap and protrusion can be designed taking account of a combination with the shape of the robot hand, to thereby facilitate transmission of torque during the opening or closing task.

According to the cell culture container of the present disclosure provided with the protrusion, the protrusion may have a tip end which is located at a position radially inside an outer periphery of the container body, as viewed from above the cap in a closed state. With this configuration, when handling the cell culture container, the protrusion of the cap does not hinder the tasks. Further, when the cell culture container is handled by a robot hand, for example, the grip force at the claw of the hand can be reduced. Furthermore, since the motion radius becomes large, a comparatively large torque can be applied to the cap, because the motion radius influences linearly a torque applied during an opening/closing task.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an automatic cell culture apparatus handles the above-mentioned cell culture container. The automatic cell culture apparatus includes an imager which outputs data of a captured image and a control apparatus which acquires image data of the mark imaged by the imager to determine whether the cap is in a correctly closed state. Specifically, by confirming the position of the mark of the cell culture container in the image, the control apparatus can determine whether the cap is in a correctly closed state.

The automatic cell culture apparatus handling the cell culture container that is provided with the protrusion, includes the imager, the control apparatus and a robot hand which performs an opening task for the cell culture container. The robot hand performs an opening task for the cell culture container by applying torque in the range of 0.7 Nm or more and 1.5 Nm or less to the torque receiver of the cap. Accordingly, the cap is rotated and opened with only a comparatively small torque being applied to the cap.

According to the automatic cell culture apparatus of the present disclosure provided with the robot hand, the robot hand is provided to the arm of a small robot. The arm of a small robot can be arranged in a working chamber of the automatic cell culture apparatus where a sufficiently large space is difficult to find to perform the opening task for the cell culture container.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a liquid container has a configuration including a container-shaped, e.g. a bottle-shaped, body and a cap mounted to an opening portion of the container-shaped body. In the configuration, a protrusion is provided to an outer peripheral portion of the cap. Further, the area around the opening portion is provided with a position indicator indicating whether the cap is at a correctly closed position on the basis of the positional relationship between the protrusion and the position indicator.

With this configuration, the robot can acquire information on the positional relationship between the protrusion of the cap and the position indicator, prior to performing the opening task, from an image captured by a camera or the like arranged at the robot hand, to thereby determine whether the cap is at a correctly closed position. Further, the opening task with the robot hand grasping the cap can be started, for example, with the claw of the hand abutting against the protrusion. Thus, when the robot hand is rotated, friction does not occur between the cap and the robot hand to thereby prevent production of wear debris.

Further, the robot can acquire information on the amount of rotation of the cap from an initially closed state, from the positional relationship between the protrusion and the position indicator. Accordingly, information on the amount of rotation required for opening the cap can also be obtained, and thus the opening task is facilitated.

According to the liquid container of the present disclosure, the position indicator may include a plurality of small areas that can be discriminated from each other, the small areas being obtained by dividing an area around the opening portion in a circumferential direction. With this configuration, the positional relationship between the cap and the body can be more easily and more specifically confirmed.

According to the liquid container of the present disclosure, the protrusion may have a tip end which is located at a position radially inside an outer periphery of the container-shaped body, as viewed from above the cap in a closed state. With this configuration, the protrusion provided to the cap does not hinder tasks performed when the cell culture container is handled.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a robot hand performs an opening task for the liquid container. The robot hand includes two or more claws, and an imager. The imager captures an image of the position indicator of the liquid container body and identifies the image of the position indicator captured by the imager. Thus, the robot can acquire information on the positional relationship between the cap and the body, to thereby perform the opening task by grasping the cap with the two or more claws.

The robot hand of the present disclosure may include a recess to be engaged with the protrusion, the recess being provided to a tip end of at least one claw. Thus, the cap can be easily rotated with the claw being engaged with the protrusion. With this configuration, friction does not occur between the cap and the claw, to thereby more reliably prevent production of wear debris.

The robot hand of the present disclosure may include two claws. Since the robot hand has only two claws, only a minimum number of openings is required to be provided for establishing communication between the exterior and the interior in which the actuators for driving the claws are provided, leading to easy sealing of the openings. Accordingly, a structure adapted for improving cleaning properties can be provided.

The robot hand of the present disclosure provided with the recess may include two or more claws provided with respective recesses. With this configuration, the claws can be more easily engaged with the protrusion of the cap.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a robot system includes a robot arm having the above-mentioned robot hand; and a control apparatus controlling the robot arm. The control apparatus acquires data of an image which has been captured by the imager provided to the robot hand, the image including the cap and the position indicator of the liquid container, and determines whether the cap is at a correctly closed position, based on a positional relationship between the protrusion of the cap and the position indicator. Thus, non-contamination of the material or the like accommodated in the liquid container can be confirmed prior to performing an opening task for the liquid container.

According to the robot system of the present disclosure, when the cap is determined to be at a correctly closed position, the control apparatus may cause the robot hand to grasp and rotate the cap in an opening direction by a predetermined angle to perform an opening task for the liquid container. With this configuration, while confirming the positional relationship between the protrusion of the cap and the position indicator from the image data, the opening task can be reliably performed.

According to the robot system of the present disclosure, when the cap is determined not to be at a correctly closed position, the control apparatus may cause the robot hand to grasp and rotate the cap in a closing direction by a predetermined angle to perform a closing task for the liquid container, and the may cause the robot hand to discard the closed liquid container. Specifically, if the liquid container has not been properly closed, the material or the like accommodated in the container may have been contaminated. Therefore, the liquid container is discarded after being completely closed so that the material or the like accommodated therein does not leak out, thereby preventing contamination inside the working chamber where the robot arm performs tasks.

