How would you feel if you obtain a master degree after years of intense studying, but end up spending most of the time during your job doing repetitive tasks that do not require all these years of intense education? Would you feel frustrated? Would you feel confused and annoyed? Wouldn't you want to do the things that align with the intellectual capabilities you have rather than doing activities that can easily be taken over by a robot? In the age of automation and digitalisation, people are scared their jobs are being taken over machines and can't compete with high output these machines/robots/algorithms have. What if we could transform these worries into something positive. Can these people work together with these 'competitors' in order to elevate and achieve a greater performance in the context they are working in?

Colab is a workstation for clinical microbiologists that targets the issue described above in the laboratory context. Our desk and field research showed us that up to 49% of a clinical microbiologist's time in the laboratory is spent on repetitive tasks that do not require the number of intellectual capabilities clinical microbiologists have. This workstation allows them to reduce the number of repetitive tasks and improve the overall quality during inoculation. Colab also gives microbiologists a better insight into bacteria growth during the incubation phase with the help of AI. The Time To Result (TTR) will be reduced and the overall quality of a sample will be improved, which not only benefits the patient due to quicker diagnosis but also allows the microbiologists to focus on tasks they love to do within their field.

The goal of this project was to identify the most appropriate way of implementing collaborative robotics in the clinical microbiology by prioritising the clinical microbiologist's preference so they can go to work every day with excitement and chances to expand their intellectual capabilities.

1. Research strategy

As we believe in including the users of the final solution in the product development process, we have decided to set up a close collaboration with the Umeå Clinical Microbiology laboratory with several checkpoints in this ten-week project. The first visit to the laboratory gave us a better understanding of clinical microbiology in general, what it takes to prescribe treatment, what kind of equipment they are using etc. After synthesising, a flowchart of the clinical microbiology laboratory has been created together with a 3D layout of the laboratory with LEGO. Two weeks later we spoke to most of the microbiologists again in the laboratory during our ethnographic research session in order to understand preferences, the reasoning behind becoming a clinical microbiologist, what gives them joy in life besides work etc. As we were aiming to create a solution that solves a problem and aligns with their preferences and integrates within their lifestyle, it is important to deeply understand a clinical microbiologist's behaviour, thoughts, preferences and general wellbeing. We showed the clinical microbiologists different robots and machines to find out how willing they are in working together with robotics.

After our desk and field research and synthesising the information, ideas were generated. During this ideation phase, we explored several ways of communicating ideas. As we were focussing on collaborative robotics, the human-machine interaction was of great importance. We held internal ideation workshops at the university and had several role-play exercises to embody the idea, its scale and visualise the human-machine interaction in order to streamline and improve a clinical microbiologist's workflow. Everything was documented, both on video and on still images for further analysis. After these internal workshops the ideas (sketches, 1:1 models and videos) we visited the clinical microbiology laboratory for the third time and discussed the generated ideas. Within the same week, we also presented our work to ABB, who is a leading player in the field of robotics. Feedback from both parties was taken into account and a realistic, innovative and slightly provocative, but still accepted by its users, concept was created.

After building more 1:1 mock-ups, by using laser cutting, CNC milling, simple paper cutting and gluing techniques, the final embodiment of the solution was defined with 3D modelling software. Since our product solution contained two collaborative robots and our field research showed that the appearance and its motions should communicate a sense of trust and willingness to work side by side, we have created a video that gives these two robots more character.

Check out the following video we have created that gives an insight in our process. https://vimeo.com/253702115

2. What is clinical microbiology?

Clinical microbiology is a field within the medical science where clinical microbiologists focus on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. When a patient is sick, often his/her blood/urine/feces etc. is sent to the clinical microbiology laboratory for analysis. The microbiologists identify the bacteria that possibly makes this patient sick and prescribe a treatment accordingly, which is in many cases antibiotics. Before prescribing the right treatment to a patient, a highly complex procedure goes prior to this.

3. Insights

During our field and desk research, we have identified and based our concept on four main insights which are explained underneath.

Repetitive, tasks take up to 49% of a microbiologists time. (1)

User research showed us that these tasks, such as inoculation, susceptibility test, preparing, and sample transferring are not the tasks microbiologists prefer to do. This contradiction makes their job less enjoyable.

source: 1. Clinical Microbiology and Infection 2015 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier

Sample quality can be threatened by human factors

The microbiologist prioritises quality control. Long exposure to wrong environments can worsen sample quality and slow down bacteria growth. Besides environmental impact, microbiologists work on a small scale and are in need of precise and sensitive instruments.

Plate reading time delays time to result

Manual sample checking for bacteria growth is done once a day, which takes in total up to 25% of a microbiologists time (1). Fully automated systems allow constant sample monitoring, by using HD cameras, but can take up to two hours to deliver a sample.

source: 1. Clinical Microbiology and Infection 2015 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier

Not all laboratories are capable of implementing fully automated systems

Every clinical microbiology laboratory is different. Based on geographical location, sample productivity varies per lab. This also means that preferences per lab differ and a solution should be deployable in a wide range of laboratories. Also, most of the laboratories are part of a hospital and are therefore constrained in space and budget.

4. Colab - making repetition less repetitive

Colab is a workstation for clinical microbiologists that targets the issue described above in the laboratory context. Our desk and field research showed us that up to 49% of a clinical microbiologist's time in the laboratory is spent on repetitive tasks that do not require the number of intellectual capabilities clinical microbiologists have. This workstation allows them to reduce the number of repetitive tasks and improve the overall quality during inoculation. Colab also gives microbiologists a better insight into bacteria growth during the incubation phase with the help of AI. The Time To Result (TTR) will be reduced and the overall quality of a sample will be improved, which not only benefits the patient due to quicker diagnosis but also allows the microbiologists to focus on tasks they love to do within their field.

Workspace

The workspace of Colab is the area where the two collaborative robots, Zack & Sarah, interact with the clinical microbiologists. We were inspired when playing a game of ping pong and used this 'back and forth' as a leading principle for the interaction between the microbiologist and Zack & Sarah. The clinical microbiologist prepares a tray, fills it with a sample, a number of agar dishes and a microscopic slide. Once this is done, the microbiologist presses a capacitive sensor, which tells Zack and Sarah to pick up the prepared task and start the inoculation process. The microbiologist has the possibility to decide which and how many agar plates he or she wants to use during this process and has the ability to personalise rather than standardise their process. While Zack and Sarah are inoculating the agar plates, the microbiologist can prepare the next tray, fill it up with agar plates, blood/urine/feces and a microscopic plate and press on the capacitive sensor. This tray will be placed in the queue and completed by Zack and Sarah when they are done with the first one. The process of inoculation will speed up tremendously, which allows a laboratory to increase their productivity and capabilities adequately.

Collaborative robotics - Zack & Sarah

Zack & Sarah are the two collaborative robots that reduce the amount of repetition on a daily base for microbiologists in their laboratory. This duo has a friendly character, moves on a rail and has six degrees of axial movement. This creates a flawless, smooth and elegant movement of the robots. Zack and Sarah can pick up agar dishes, drip blood on the agar dishes and microscopic plates, inoculate (the process of spreading and streaking a liquid on the agar dish) and transport them to the incubation area. This duo is designed in such a way it invites you to work together with them effectively in front of you, rather than in the background.

Incubation that improves time efficiency

As mentioned before, once an agar dish is inoculated, it's transported to the incubation area. The function of an incubator is to offer an environment in which a bacteria or fungi can grow as quickly as possible. Colab has three incubators with different conditions/environments. Every agar plate that has been inoculated will be placed in one of the incubators. During our desk and field research, we found out that plate reading takes up to 25% of a microbiologists time. By implementing a system that simply takes photos of these agar plates on set intervals and compares the photos, growth can be identified. A microbiologist will be notified once there is enough bacterial growth. If there is not enough growth, the agar plate will be discarded and removed from the incubator. This way the microbiologist only looks at samples that have sufficient growth, rather than the ones without enough growth, and are ready for the next phase: susceptibility testing.

Deployable and scalable rail system

Colab currently focusses on the inoculation and incubation process within clinical microbiology. We have designed this system in such a way it could be implemented in the other process within the laboratory. We envision the railway system and two collaborative robots to be implemented in the registration, bacteria identification, susceptibility testing and anaerobic workspaces as well. Rather than creating an all-in-one solution that requires a large investment (both financially and spatially), we created a solution which can be adopted by not only large-scale laboratories but also smaller ones.