Liquid-handling Lego robots and experiments for STEM education and research

PLoS Biol. 2017 Mar 21;15(3):e2001413. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2001413. eCollection 2017 Mar.

Abstract

Liquid-handling robots have many applications for biotechnology and the life sciences, with increasing impact on everyday life. While playful robotics such as Lego Mindstorms significantly support education initiatives in mechatronics and programming, equivalent connections to the life sciences do not currently exist. To close this gap, we developed Lego-based pipetting robots that reliably handle liquid volumes from 1 ml down to the sub-μl range and that operate on standard laboratory plasticware, such as cuvettes and multiwell plates. These robots can support a range of science and chemistry experiments for education and even research. Using standard, low-cost household consumables, programming pipetting routines, and modifying robot designs, we enabled a rich activity space. We successfully tested these activities in afterschool settings with elementary, middle, and high school students. The simplest robot can be directly built from the widely used Lego Education EV3 core set alone, and this publication includes building and experiment instructions to set the stage for dissemination and further development in education and research.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Automation, Laboratory
  • Biotechnology
  • Robotics / education*
  • Schools*
  • Science / education
  • Software*

Grants and funding

NSF (grant number 1324753). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. NSF (grant number 1638070). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.