Automation of Analysis Preparation by Using Humanoid Robot

The Hitachi High-Tech Group provides various analytical products created through its core technologies. When our customers use these products, many processes of analysis preparation are necessary before starting analysis of their samples. Most of the processes have been performed manually until today. However, automation of such processes is recently expected by using robots since they are facing a shortage of workers due to a declining birthrate and an aging population. With this kind of background, we have developed a humanoid robot system to perform analysis preparation by using the same apparatus and environment as used by human workers. As a result of an experimental estimation, we confirmed that our robot could perform the analysis preparation correctly.