Robotic sample changers for macromolecular X-ray crystallography and biological small-angle X-ray scattering at the National Synchrotron Light Source II

Journal Article · Mon Aug 23 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1107/s1600577521007578· OSTI ID:1841107

Lazo, Edwin O. ^[1]; Antonelli, Stephen ^[1]; Aishima, Jun ^[1]; Bernstein, Herbert J. ^[1]; Bhogadi, Dileep ^[2]; Fuchs, Martin R. ^[1]; Guichard, Nicolas ^[3]; McSweeney, Sean ^[1]; Myers, Stuart ^[1]; Qian, Kun ^[1]; Schneider, Dieter ^[1]; Shea-McCarthy, Grace ^[1]; Skinner, John ^[1]; Sweet, Robert ^[1]; Yang, Lin ^[1]; Jakoncic, Jean ^[1]

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1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)
2. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
3. STMicroelectronics, Crolles (France)

In this work, we present two robotic sample changers integrated into the experimental stations for the macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines AMX and FMX, and the biological small-angle scattering (bioSAXS) beamline LiX. They enable fully automated unattended data collection and remote access to the beamlines. The system designs incorporate high-throughput, versatility, high-capacity, resource sharing and robustness. All systems are centered around a six-axis industrial robotic arm coupled with a force torque sensor and in-house end effectors (grippers). They have the same software architecture and the facility standard EPICS-based BEAST alarm system. The MX system is compatible with SPINE bases and Unipucks. It comprises a liquid nitrogen dewar holding 384 samples (24 Unipucks) and a stay-cold gripper, and utilizes machine vision software to track the sample during operations and to calculate the final mount position on the goniometer. The bioSAXS system has an in-house engineered sample storage unit that can hold up to 360 samples (20 sample holders) which keeps samples at a user-set temperature (277 K to 300 K). The MX systems were deployed in early 2017 and the bioSAXS system in early 2019.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0012704
• OSTI ID: 1841107
• Report Number(s): BNL--222455-2021-JAAM
• Journal Information: Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (Online), Journal Name: Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (Online) Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 28; ISSN 1600-5775
• Publisher: International Union of Crystallography
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
AMX
FMX
LiX
NSLS-II
National Synchrotron Light Source II
automation
biological small-angle X-ray scattering
high-throughput
macromolecular crystallography