Flexible to Fit Any Layout
Customize the system to connect existing automation to optimize efficiency or build a new automation workflow from the ground up.
Scale as Your Needs Grow
The modular design allows the system to easily expand with your lab’s needs. Quickly add more tracks or ROVERs to grow your system in as little as two days.
Maximize Your Lab Space
The system is light enough to hang from the ceiling to free up valuable floor space. Elevators provide access to the automation stations below.
Low Maintenance
ROVERs self-calibrate through machine vision and can be easily swapped or removed to keep your automation running.
Autonomous Plate and Labware Handling for Lab Automation
ROVER®, a laboratory automation platform, uses self-driving "cars" to move microplates and other labware from one laboratory instrument to another. The ROVERs use machine vision to navigate virtual maps, providing researchers with a flexible and scalable solution. The platform can scan barcodes, perform plate transfers at designated locations, and move freely in its environment with precise, omnidirectional motion.
The ROVER system can automate many of the repetitive tasks involved in laboratory work to free up researchers to focus on more important tasks, such as experiment design and analyzing data.
Flexible to Fit Any Lab Layout
The ROVER system is designed to be completely customized to your lab’s individual space and workflow requirements. Regardless of the level of automation employed, there is a ROVER solution that can help optimize your laboratory’s efficiency. Use the ROVERs to connect existing automation, or use them to build a new automation workflow from the ground up.
The system can be customized with a variety of track and layout components to meet your needs. ROVER tracks can be sized to a variety of lengths and widths. The tracks can also be suspended from the ceiling, coupled with elevators, allowing plates and labware to be transferred between instrumentation without occupying floor space. Wall pass-throughs can even be installed to connect multiple rooms together. This flexibility allows users to optimize the usage of their current laboratory automation (such as liquid handlers, readers, etc.) to take their throughput to the next level.
Video courtesy of BioTech TV. To watch the full episode, please click here.
Video from SLAS talk presented by Beam Therapeutics
Quickly Scale as Your Lab Grows
The ROVER platform is modular by design to allow users to easily and rapidly expand as your lab’s requirements change. The system can be integrated into existing automation setups and easily reconfigured and expanded to meet changing needs.
The platform consists of three major components:
- ROVERs (aka “cars”)
- Fleet Manager Software
- Infrastructure (the navigable environment of the ROVERs, including tracks and elevators)
Each of these components can be adjusted to provide more flexibility and through to your automation workflow. The lightweight ROVERs can be easily picked up and added or swapped out in a matter of minutes. The Fleet Manager Software continuously schedules and tracks the status of every ROVER and features an open API to enable easy integration. Adding new ROVERs to the software will give it greater flexibility in scheduling transfer tasks. Finally, the infrastructure is also lightweight and modular, allowing it to be pieced together and rearranged as needed. Installing new track and/or new ROVERs to your system can be done in as little as two days.
Customer Spotlight: Aera Therapeutics
Aera Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts walks through their laboratory buildout at their new headquarters explaining how the ROVER platform plays an integral role in their advanced automation strategy.
Low Maintenance Automation
The intention of laboratory automation is to increase efficiency. That cannot be achieved if your system is constantly down for maintenance or recalibration. The ROVER platform was created to allow easy maintenance for increased up-time, while minimizing system downtime.
The ROVERs self-navigate within a defined laboratory space, utilizing downward-facing cameras and barcode-encoded mats. The need for precise calibration is eliminated by utilizing real-time visual alignment as the ROVERs interface with instruments during plate transfers. The Fleet Management Software monitors the status of each ROVER and notifies the user of any potential issues. At only 2.5 kg (5.3 lbs), the ROVERs are lightweight enough to be picked up and swapped out if needed.
The “Last Mile” Problem of Lab Automation
Enabling the Lab of the Future with the Formulatrix ROVER and F.A.S.T.
In this talk, Bob Gantzer from Beam Therapeutics presents the company’s lab automation strategy, pushing to a fully automated, integrated laboratory, including the use of the ROVER Platform and the F.A.S.T. Liquid Handler.
