Qi TurnStation

A reorientation station changes the orientation in which labware is presented, so a plate picked up one way round can be handed over another. A mover’s gripper approaches labware from a fixed direction, and instruments do not agree on which way a plate should face — something has to turn the plate, and turning it in the gripper is usually not an option.

The Qi TurnStation is a UK Robotics reorientation station that is driven: the station itself rotates to present the plate at the orientation the next instrument needs. There is no third-party datasheet to consult — the behaviour described here is the behaviour Revolution implements.

At a glance

Type	Driven — the station rotates to the requested orientation
Grip profiles	Landscape, Portrait
Integration	Serial
Revolution control	Move to orientation (teaching only), dump current position

How it works

Reorientation is driven by two inputs: an orientation (in degrees) and a grip profile (Landscape or Portrait). The grip profile is part of each call rather than a device setting, because how labware should be held depends on the labware — a tall deep-well plate and a shallow microplate are not gripped the same way. Landscape leaves the requested orientation as the turn angle; Portrait adds 90°.

During a transfer, the mover’s locations on this station are taught with the grip profile and orientation each one represents. When the mover picks from or places onto one of those locations, the station rotates to match before the transfer completes — so the plate always arrives already turned the way the location expects.

Supported methods

• Move to orientation — move to a nominated orientation, using a given grip profile. The driver marks this for teaching only: use it to jog the station into position while setting up, not to move plates during a live schedule. The rotation that happens during a real transfer is driven automatically by the taught locations, not by calling this method mid-schedule.
• Dump current position — report where the station currently is.

Dump current position matters more than it sounds. A station whose position is unknown after a fault is not safe to hand a plate to; reading the position back is how a schedule confirms the station is where it believes before committing a transfer.

Integration

Revolution talks to the Qi TurnStation over a serial connection.

Device configuration

Property	Purpose
COM Port Name	Serial port the station is connected on
Accept all object types	Allow any labware onto the station
Accepted object type names	When not accepting all types, the labware types this station will take

Accepted object type names is a guard, not a convenience. Restricting a station to the labware it is actually set up for means a schedule that tries to send the wrong plate is refused at the station rather than discovering the mismatch by dropping something.

Prerequisites

• The station must be cabled to the Revolution host and its COM port known before the device is initialised.
• Grip profiles must be defined for the labware the station will handle.
• The mover serving the station must have each location it uses on this station taught with the grip profile and orientation that location represents.

If you need more of this instrument driven from a schedule, get in touch — the driver is extended on demand.