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

Journal: Journal of synchrotron radiation
PMID: 34475312

Abstract

Here 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.

Authors

  • Edwin O Lazo
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • Stephen Antonelli
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • Jun Aishima
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • Herbert J Bernstein
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • Dileep Bhogadi
    Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
  • Martin R Fuchs
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • Nicolas Guichard
    STMicroelectronics, Crolles, Rhône-Alpes, France.
  • Sean McSweeney
    ESRF, 6 Rue Jules Horowitz, 38000 Grenoble, France.
  • Stuart Myers
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • Kun Qian
    Key Laboratory of Brain Health Intelligent Evaluation and Intervention (Beijing Institute of Technology), Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
  • Dieter Schneider
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • Grace Shea-McCarthy
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • John Skinner
    Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States.
  • Robert Sweet
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • Lin Yang
    National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, Key Laboratory of Diabetes Immunology (Central South University), Ministry of Education, and Department of Metabolism and Endocrinology, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
  • Jean Jakoncic
    National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.

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