Hands free micro operation for protein crystal analysis

The goal of this paper is to realize a hands free operating system for analytical work on protein crystal using a micro hand and an integrated vision system. At first, the operation for the protein crystal analysis is summarized to make it clear what kind of tasks should be necessary for automatic operation. Secondly, the proposed system is briefly reviewed, which is constructed with a two-fingered micro hand system and an all-in-focus microscopic system. Thirdly, a new localization criterion for transparent objects with the all-in-focus system is proposed for the protein crystal operation. Finally, experimental results show the validity of the proposed system and algorithm.