Difference between revisions of "Team:Ionis Paris/Hardware"
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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> | <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> | ||
| − | <p>The basic principle of | + | <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>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> |
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Revision as of 08:03, 17 October 2016
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 (like the chassis and feet)
The drone was designed in order to safely contain genetically modified, using a tube we designed as well. The tube, working a an airlock, allowed us to sample some air without letting any bacteria out 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 and a distribution circuit.
We thought about this drone as a prototype, the first step towards the application of our project in the outside world. Its main objectives were to fly, to carry the bacteria on site, and to retrieve the bacteria exposed to pollutants through a cartridge system. However, we thought about a few improvements for it as the project went on:
We thought about this drone as a prototype, the first step towards the application of our project in the outside world. Its main objectives were to fly, to carry the bacteria on site, and to retrieve the bacteria exposed to pollutants through a cartridge system. However, we thought about a few improvements for it as the project went on:
There already is a very simple safety mechanism on the drone: if it goes out of the controller’s range, it lands. However, we thought of another one: sticking 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. 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. 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. 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.
Drone
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 what we should need, and a theoretical 8 minutes autonomy. The extra payload will be used to add extra modules to the drone (such as a bleach bottle, see below), and the 8 minutes autonomy is more than enough to perform our measurement series.
Containment Tube
