Difference between revisions of "Team:Ionis Paris/Hardware"

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<p>There is already a very simple safety mechanism on the drone. If it goes out of the controller’s range, it will lands. However, this will not avoid bacterial dissemination if the drone crashed. This is a second safety mechanism had to be set up.  
 
<p>There is already a very simple safety mechanism on the drone. If it goes out of the controller’s range, it will lands. However, this will not avoid bacterial dissemination if the drone crashed. This is a second safety mechanism had to be set up.  
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A small bottle of bleach under the drone. In the event of a crash, the bottle would break and spill the bleach everywhere, killing any bacteria that might have leaked out of a broken tube.</p>
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A small bottle of bleach under the drone. In the event of a crash, the bottle would break and spill the bleach, killing any bacteria that might have leaked out of a broken tube. <br/>
  
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We proposed some improvements to this prototype:</p>
  
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We proposed some safety improvements to this prototype:
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<li><p> <u>Investigation of drone's on-field bioluminescence analysis abilities : </u> it appears that the required technology is out of our reach within the frame of the iGEM competition. It might be possible by using a microfluidic circuit and a small photosensitive cell. The microfluidic circuit would allow us to manipulate the cells one by one to make them pass in front of a photosensitive cell. However, using this technology, the time before bioluminescence assay must be reduce.</li></p>
  
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<li><p><u>Drone telecontrol : </u> We thought about coding a software that would allow us to telecontrol our drone. A GPS-based software will allow automatic mapping and a more efficient flight planning. However, when we discussed about the software code with Edouard GUILHOT, director of Civic Drone, it appeared more complex than expected. It will also involved extra electronic components.</li></p>                     
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                                            <li><p>We also investigated about how we could turn our drone and give it on-field analysis abilities. It appears that the required technology is out of our reach within the frame of the iGEM competition, but that might be possible by using a microfluidic circuit and a small photosensitive cell. The microfluidic circuit would allow us to manipulate the cells one by one, and the cell could be quickly analyzed by the photosensitive cell. This even has two interesting side-effects: the measurement time should be way quicker, due to the single cell exposed, and the drone would be able to perform way more measurements in a single flight.</li></p>
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                                            <li><p>During the project, we thought about coding a software that would allow us to control our drone remotely, through a computer. The idea would be that a GPS-based software could lead to automatic mapping and to a more efficient flight planning. However, we contacted some professionals about this (Edouard GUILHOT, from Civic Drone), and they showed us how such a software was coded. It appeared way more complex than what we originally thought, and it involved some extra electronic components that we did not plan on adding to the drone. We therefore had to drop the idea, and stick to a drone manned only through a controller.</li></p>                     
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             <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/e/e2/IONIS_IGEM_drone_pierre.jpg" alt="">
 
             <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/e/e2/IONIS_IGEM_drone_pierre.jpg" alt="">
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         <figcaption><p><b>Our drone in the making</b></p></figcaption>
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         <figcaption><p><i> Drone creation by Pierre Couderc</i></p></figcaption>
  
 
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             <h5 class="smallHd">Containment tubes</h5>
 
             <h5 class="smallHd">Containment tubes</h5>
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             <h2 class="secHd">Chosing the design and the materials</h2>
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             <h2 class="secHd"> Tube design and materials</h2>
  
 
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<p>The tube itself was one of our major challenges: as we are working with living modified organisms, it has to be perfectly safe in terms of containment: Not a single organism must able to get out in the open environment. Therefore, we designed a sampling tube able to sample external air and expose bacteria to it while remaining perfectly hermetic. The tube can then be opened in the lab for result analysis. Our tubes were 3D printed, and the drone was designed to hold up to four tubes for our prototype version.</p>
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<p><b>The bacteria containing tube was one of our challenge. </b> As we are working with living modified organisms, it had to be perfectly safe in terms of containment: Not a single organism must able to get out in the open environment. Therefore, we designed a sampling tube able to sample external air and expose bacteria to it while remaining perfectly hermetic. The tube can then be opened in the lab for result analysis. Our tubes were 3D printed, and the drone was designed to hold up to four tubes for our prototype version.</p>
 
<p>The basic principle of the tube itself is the same as an airlock: there is a compartment between the outside environment and the inside of the tube, and it acts as an interface: the outside and inside never mix. Therefore, air can be sampled when the tube is opened by little servomotors placed on the drone, and when it closes, air goes into the inner part ofthe tube, therefore making contact with the bacteria who are exposed to the pollutant and will start producing luciferase.</p>
 
<p>The basic principle of the tube itself is the same as an airlock: there is a compartment between the outside environment and the inside of the tube, and it acts as an interface: the outside and inside never mix. Therefore, air can be sampled when the tube is opened by little servomotors placed on the drone, and when it closes, air goes into the inner part ofthe tube, therefore making contact with the bacteria who are exposed to the pollutant and will start producing luciferase.</p>
 
<p>We believe that the tube we designed is a very useful tool for applied synthetic biology that everyone can use, and will do our best to improve it within the iGEM Competition.</p>
 
<p>We believe that the tube we designed is a very useful tool for applied synthetic biology that everyone can use, and will do our best to improve it within the iGEM Competition.</p>

Revision as of 00:12, 19 October 2016

Hardware

Drone's conception process

In order to demonstrate our project into real-world conditions, we developed a custom drone able to safely transport our organisms into the chosen areas. We were able to use a 3D printer at La Paillasse that allowed us to print most of the drone parts ourselves (chassis and feet). The drone was designed in order to safely contain genetically modified using a tube that we also designed. The tube, working as an airlock, allowed air sampling without bacterial dissemination in the external environment. (Please note that no containment test have been conducted outside the lab).

The drone is a quadricopter with a 980kv power.It has 4 ESC (motor speed control systems) of 30A and is equipped with a flight control system as well as a distribution circuit.It runs on a 3S battery (5Ah).
In order to allow the opening of our tubes, the drone is equipped with servomotors able to lift the lid of the tubes. The drone has a 500g payload capacity which is more than needed and a theoretical autonomy of 8 minutes. The extra payload will be used to add other modules to the drone (such as a bleach bottle as explained below).

On the left : Our drone's chassis.On the right: The final version of our drone

Even if this drone is just a prototype, it is the first step towards the in field application of our project. Our main objective was to realize a flying drone able to carry the bacteria on-site without dissemination and able to sample air.

There is already a very simple safety mechanism on the drone. If it goes out of the controller’s range, it will lands. However, this will not avoid bacterial dissemination if the drone crashed. This is a second safety mechanism had to be set up. A small bottle of bleach under the drone. In the event of a crash, the bottle would break and spill the bleach, killing any bacteria that might have leaked out of a broken tube.
We proposed some improvements to this prototype:

  • Investigation of drone's on-field bioluminescence analysis abilities : it appears that the required technology is out of our reach within the frame of the iGEM competition. It might be possible by using a microfluidic circuit and a small photosensitive cell. The microfluidic circuit would allow us to manipulate the cells one by one to make them pass in front of a photosensitive cell. However, using this technology, the time before bioluminescence assay must be reduce.

  • Drone telecontrol : We thought about coding a software that would allow us to telecontrol our drone. A GPS-based software will allow automatic mapping and a more efficient flight planning. However, when we discussed about the software code with Edouard GUILHOT, director of Civic Drone, it appeared more complex than expected. It will also involved extra electronic components.

    • Drone creation by Pierre Couderc

    Containment tubes

    Tube design and materials

    The bacteria containing tube was one of our challenge. As we are working with living modified organisms, it had to be perfectly safe in terms of containment: Not a single organism must able to get out in the open environment. Therefore, we designed a sampling tube able to sample external air and expose bacteria to it while remaining perfectly hermetic. The tube can then be opened in the lab for result analysis. Our tubes were 3D printed, and the drone was designed to hold up to four tubes for our prototype version.

    The basic principle of the tube itself is the same as an airlock: there is a compartment between the outside environment and the inside of the tube, and it acts as an interface: the outside and inside never mix. Therefore, air can be sampled when the tube is opened by little servomotors placed on the drone, and when it closes, air goes into the inner part ofthe tube, therefore making contact with the bacteria who are exposed to the pollutant and will start producing luciferase.

    We believe that the tube we designed is a very useful tool for applied synthetic biology that everyone can use, and will do our best to improve it within the iGEM Competition.