Hardware and Software manual for Evolution of Oil Droplets in a Chemo-Robotic Platform
This provides a practical tool for researchers studying chemical evolution, but it is incremental as it builds on existing robotic and imaging technologies.
The authors developed a fully automated liquid handling robot to enable physically-embodied evolution in a chemical oil-droplet system, using a 3D printer-based setup to create and analyze droplet behavior via image recognition.
This manual outlines a fully automated liquid handling robot to enable physically-embodied evolution within a chemical oil-droplet system. The robot is based upon the REPRAP3D printer system and makes the droplets by mixing chemicals and then placing them in a petri dish after which they are recorded using a camera and the behaviour of the droplets analysed using image recognition software. This manual accompanies the open access publication published in Nature Communications DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6571.