Abstract:
A test tube pick system for picking and placing test tubes in a rack that includes a hand-held pick unit that communicates with a host device that assists in instructing the picking and placement of test tubes, the hand-held pick unit having a housing with a hand grip portion, a control portion with an actuator control and a display for displaying alphanumeric characters for pick and placement locations, a pick portion having four extending fingers with bent ends forming four parallel spaced end prongs, and an actuator mechanism that displaces and spreads at least two of the four end prongs when the actuator control is activated by a user.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   This invention relates to a test tube picker for rack stored test tubes and in particular to an ergonomic hand-held, electronic pick unit with system intelligence adapted for cord or cordless use. 
   The field of bioscience has exploded and its demands have advanced procedures for analytical chemistry and life science studies. Laboratories routinely employ trays to store and organize numerous test tube racks which are containment structures for densely packed upright test tubes. The test tubes are typically small polymer casings, ranging in capacity from 0.5-2 ml with or without a cap or stopper, arranged in an orthogonal matrix. 
   A standard rack holds ninety-six tubes in an eight by twelve matrix. Typically, the rack has a top deck with individual holes or cells into which the casings are inserted with upper portions of the casings projecting well above the deck and the lower portion of the casings retained by ribs or dividers in the containment structure. Frequently, the bottom of the rack is designed to allow viewing of the bottom of the casings, particularly when the casing bottom is marked with an identifier such as a 2-D barcode. 
   Sophisticated operations include robotic pickup and placement mechanisms for multi-rack test and scanning beds. Inevitably, even in sophisticated operations, the necessity arises to manually select and remove or place a single test tube at a particular location in an array of tubes. 
   Because the tubes are packed in an orthogonal array, grasping a single tube with one&#39;s fingers is difficult. Additionally, the racks of tubes are often heated or chilled increasing the difficulty of single tube selection. 
   These and other circumstances make an ergonomic hand-held tube picker a useful tool in the modern laboratory environment. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The hand-held test tube picker of this invention preferably comprises a test tube pick system with an ergonomic hand-held pick unit and an electronic intelligence component to assist the user in accurately selecting, transporting and placing individual test tubes in a typical tube array. 
   The hand-held pick unit has an elongated hand-grip portion, a control portion and an extended picker portion. The hand-grip portion is suitable for housing a power supply and actuator mechanisms. The control portion includes the triggering electronics and in the preferred embodiments, the instructional features, including an electronic display and processing means to instruct and direct the user. 
   In the simplest system, the hand-held pick unit has a cable and is connected to a computer as a peripheral in the form of a character display device. 
   In this system, the computer provides power for the picker mechanism and includes an application program with a database for tube identification and location, and the protocol for re-arrangement. Here, the hand-held pick unit is a dumb terminal having a display that alerts the user to what tube must be located and picked up, and where it is to be placed. 
   With minor modification, this system can be wireless by inclusion of a power pack and a simple wireless data system, such as an infrared light or radio frequency signal receiver. A small dedicated processor, if not a part of the display, translates the wireless signal and renders or activates the appropriate alphanumeric characters in the display. Typically, each tray and rack are identified and the location in a  96  tube rack can be identified by A-H row letter and  1 - 12  column number. The preferred hand-held pick unit also includes one or more control switches including a trigger switch to capture and release a selected tube and scroll switches to scroll up or down work lists for identified tubes and locations. 
   As inexpensive processors improve, and as test tube storage systems become even more sophisticated, the hand-held pick unit can incorporate additional on-board features. For example, barcoded trays, racks and even individual tubes are an advanced state-of-the-art practice. Incorporating barcode scanners and image readers in the hand-held test tube picker is advantageous. Additionally, with the miniaturization of r.f. I.D. tags, the hand-held unit becomes a convenient platform for activating the tag and tracking to the location of a desired tube for selection and removal. 
   These and other features are described in greater detail in the “Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment.” 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the hand-held pick unit in a test tube pick system. 
       FIG. 2  is a perspective view of the actuator mechanism contained within the housing of the hand-held pick unit of  FIG. 1 . 
       FIG. 3  is a first perspective view of an enlarged portion of the actuator mechanism of  FIG. 2 . 
       FIG. 4  is a second perspective view of an enlarged portion of the actuator mechanism of  FIG. 2 . 
       FIG. 5  is a side view partially broken away of an alternate embodiment of the hand-held pick unit of  FIG. 1 . 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   Referring to  FIG. 1 , one preferred test tube pick system  10  is shown with a perspective illustration of the ergonomic hand-held pick unit  12  in combination with a computer  14 . The computer  14  is in the form of an ordinary personal computer with a monitor  16 , a processing unit  18  and a keyboard  20 , and is connected to the hand-held pick unit  12  by a cable  22 . As previously mentioned, the cable  22  can be eliminated when the hand-held unit and computer include a wireless communication system, such as infrared or radio frequency signal processing systems common with many computers for communication with peripheral input devices including a mouse or controller, or with local area networks. 
   The hand-held pick unit  12  has a housing  24  with a hand-grip portion  26 , a control portion  28 , and an extended pick portion  30  with projecting pick fingers  32 . Because of the orthogonal arrangement of test tubes  34  (one shown in  FIG. 1 ) in a rack  36  (a portion of which is shown in  FIG. 1  in phantom), four fingers  32  are optimal. 
   The fingers  32  in the form of slender rods are bent to provide clear visibility of the top  36  of the tube  34  when the parallel end prongs  38  are positioned around the upper portion  40  of the tube casing  42 . The tube  34  may be provided with a stopper or cap  44  that may have a diameter slightly larger than the upper portion  40  of the tube casing  42 . The bent end prongs  38  are spaced apart and have a constricted portion  46  to accommodate the cap  44  if of greater diameter than the casing  42 . The prong ends  46  may be covered by a nipple  48  to protect the casing which is usually fabricated from a plastic material. 
   The control portion  28  of the housing  24 , at the minimal, has a trigger button  50  that actuates the opening and closing of the gripping prongs  38 . It is to be understood that the trigger button  50  is a switch and could be replaced by a manual or electronic trigger on the underside of the control portion  28  of the housing  24 . The preferred trigger button  50  is an electronic switch that actuates the solenoid  52  of an actuator mechanism  54  as shown in  FIG. 2 . Although different actuation protocols can be effective, it is preferred that the prongs  38  are in the normally closed or gripping position. When the trigger button  50  is pressed and the solenoid actuated, the outer fingers  32   a  displace and spread to accommodate the tube casing  42  and cap  44  as shown in slightly exaggerated form in  FIG. 1 . When the button  50  is released, a spring return mechanism  56  shifts the gripping prongs  38  to a closer gripping position. In this manner, a gripped test tube  34  will not be inadvertently dropped by a power failure or thumb displacement in reverse procedure with the gripping position activated by pressing the trigger button  50 . 
   In a preferred embodiment, the control portion  28  of the housing  24  has a display  58  in the form of two separate inexpensive LCD screens  60 . The inexpensive LCD screens  60  can be replaced with alphanumeric character generators, plasma screens, or a single screen of desired type. 
   The separate screens  60  permit the use of simple labels  62  to identify the information in a particular screen, such as the “SOURCE” and “DESTINATION” labels  62  in the  FIG. 1  embodiment. The screens  60  generate alphanumeric characters  59  according to a work log produced by the computer application program. As an example, “R153TO7A” and “R153T12H” indicate tube in row A, column  07 , is to be selected from rack  153  and placed in the same rack at location row H, column  12 . Other identification and location tags can be used and the procedure varied, for example, by including a step to check a barcode on the tube bottom with a barcode reader (not shown). 
   Additionally, the control portion  28  of the housing  24  includes a pair of button switches  53  and  55 . The button switches  53  and  55  are programmed to control the scrolling of the work log, with button switch  53  moving the log list forward and button switch  55  moving the log list backward. Other controls may be added for particular applications as needed. 
   The hand-grip portion is configured for convenient and ergonomic gripping by a user&#39;s hand and forms a cavity for a portion of the actuator mechanism in one embodiment or for a power pack in another wireless embodiment. 
   Referring to  FIGS. 2-4 , the actuator mechanism  54  includes the solenoid  52  that is electrically connected to the trigger button  50  by terminals  57 . The actuated core rod  63  is connected to bent tab  61  at the end of an extension plate  64  that runs under the solenoid casing  65  and is in turn connected to the upwardly bent ends  66  of the displaceable fingers  32   a  capped with sleeve nuts  68 . The extension plate  64  and fingers  32   a  engage the spring return mechanism  56  which anchors the fixed fingers  32   b . The extension plate  64  enables the solenoid  52  to be physically displaced from the spring return mechanism  56  for balance of the hand-held unit  12 . 
   Notably, where the hand-held unit  12  is wireless and the cavity in the hand-grip portion is utilized for a battery pack, the solenoid  52  can be relocated adjacent to the spring return mechanism  56 , while retaining the balance of the overall unit. 
   The spring return mechanism  56  includes an anchor block  70  for the ends  72  of the stationary fingers  32   b  which are positioned and fixed to the anchor block  70  by set screws  74 . The anchor block  70  is fixed to an outer U-shaped bracket  76  through which the stationary fingers  32   b  project. The outer U-shaped bracket  76  is secured to the housing  24  and traps an inverted inner U-shaped bracket  78  that is fastened to the extension plate  64  by four machine screws  80  with nuts  82 . The outside span of the inner U-shaped bracket  78  is incrementally smaller than the inside span of the outer U-shaped bracket  76 . This allows a limited displacement of the inner U-shaped bracket  78 , and hence the displaceable fingers  32   a  relative to the outer U-shaped bracket  76 . The degree of displacement depends on the size of tube being grasped by the fingers and the desired diagonal travel of the fingers. 
   As shown in  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the displaceable fingers  32   a  are anchored at their upwardly bent ends  66  and have end portions  84  passing through oval guide holes  86  and  88  in both the inner and outer U-shaped brackets  78  and  76 , respectively. The oval guide holes  88  in the outer U-shaped bracket  76  are sized to co-act with constricted segments  90  in the end portions  84  of the displaceable fingers  32   a  as a cam action guide  91  when the solenoid  52  is deactivated and the displaceable fingers  32   a  are displaced. In the deactivated state, the displaceable fingers  32   a  are displaced closer together and as a pair, are displaced closer to the fixed fingers  32   b  in a gripping position. This position is induced and maintained by a pair of compression springs  92  seated on C-clips  93  fixed in notches (not shown) on the ends  72  of the stationary fingers and in biased contact with an arm  94  of the inner U-shaped bracket  78 . 
   With the casing  65  of the solenoid  52  mounted to the housing  24  of hand-held unit  12 , activation of the solenoid  52  retracts the core rod  63  displacing the extension plate  64  and hence the connected inner U-shaped bracket  78  against the compression springs  92  to displace and spread the displaceable fingers  32   a  relative to the fixed fingers  32   b.    
   In this position, the end prongs  38  are in their relative open position to encompass the upper portion of a tube casing  42  preparatory to gripping the tube, or in the alternative, to release a tube held by the hand-held unit  12 . To maintain the spread of the displaced prongs, a small spreader spring  96  is shown in part in  FIG. 4 , is compressed and positioned between the end portions  84  of the displaceable fingers  32   a . The location of the spreader spring  96  is maintained by a small S or Z-shaped locator bracket  98  fixed to the underside of the inner U-shaped bracket  78  by a screw and nut assembly  100 . The screw and nut assembly  100  is accessible through holes  102  in the end of the extension plate  64 . 
   As noted, the hand-held pick unit  12  may alternately comprise a wireless hand-held pick unit  12   a , as shown in the side view in  FIG. 5 . The alternate hand-held pick unit  12   a , as previously noted, has a power pack  104  in a cavity  106  in the hand grip portion  26 . The power pack  104  comprises a pair of batteries  108  as shown in the broken away portion of the housing  24 . As noted, the solenoid (not shown) can be moved to the control portion  28  of the housing  24 . In the control portion  28 , there is included a microprocessor  109  that controls the operation of the hand-held pick unit  12   a  and the r.f. circuitry  110  which may reside on a common board  112 . The r.f. circuitry  110  operates a transceiver probe  114  on the underside of the unit  12   a  for activating and reading any RFID (radio frequency identification) tags on individual racks or tubes. The r.f. circuitry  110  also operates a transceiver antenna  116  for wirelessly communicating with an associated computer or other communication linking device. It is to be understood that the capabilities of the pick units  12  and  12   a  can be varied according to the power of the on-board processor and the degree of delegation of functions to the wired and wireless units for detecting, processing and communicating. 
   It is to be understood that the extension plate  64  is effectively the actuator arm for the actuator mechanism and the solenoid drive device could be replaced with a manual thumb slide or pneumatic piston mechanism. However, as a preferred electronic unit, an electronic drive device such as the solenoid, is considered optimum. 
   Similarly, in an electronic unit, the r.f. circuitry  110  can be replaced with or include an i.r. component  118  for wireless communication with a remote device, such as a host computer of the type schematically illustrated in  FIG. 1 . Also, other detecting components, such as a camera probe  120 , can be included with the circuitry of a charge-couple device (CCD)  122  on the common board  112 . The CCD  122  views the reflected barcode marker  124  on the bottom of a barcode marked tube  126  with the aid of a light prism  128  as an auxiliary countertop or rack associated component. These and other features can be added to a basic picker unit. 
   While, in the foregoing, embodiments of the present invention have been set forth in considerable detail for the purposes of making a complete disclosure of the invention, it may be apparent to those of skill in the art that numerous changes may be made in such detail without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention.