KITECH Develops Unmanned Cell Culture Robot

A New Catalyst for Accelerating Life Science Research

A robotic system that automates the cell culture process, a task that has long burdened researchers during biotechnology experiments, has been developed.

The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) announced on April 22 that a joint research team led by Nam Kyungtae, Head of the Regional Industry Innovation Division at the Human-Centered Manufacturing Technology Research Center, and Kim Taehui, Principal Researcher, has developed a "robotic automation system for cell culture medium replacement and culturing processes."

Cell culture work is essential for developing and producing therapeutics, vaccines, and antibodies. However, because it has traditionally been done manually, it has placed a significant burden on researchers in this field.

During cell culture, cells and nutrients must be placed together in a culture vessel, and temperature and humidity must be carefully maintained for a set period. However, it is difficult to monitor these conditions continuously around the clock. Although there have been attempts to automate the process, previous solutions could only partially replace certain steps and were also expensive.

After three years of research and development starting in 2023, the KITECH research team has developed a robotic system capable of fully automating the entire subculturing process. If all necessary materials, such as culture media and replacement vessels, are preloaded into the system, the robotic arm autonomously retrieves and handles them. Every step of the robotic operation can be monitored remotely in real time by a human operator.

The system is designed as a sealed unit with a high-efficiency filtration system to block external air and maintain clean internal air conditions. An industrial robotic arm with a six-axis (six-joint) structure is centrally installed.

With this system, every stage of the cell culture process can be performed, from the initial cell seeding to medium replacement, microscopic cell observation, and subculturing.

Kim Taehui, Principal Researcher at KITECH, explained, "Because the robotic arm performs the culturing process in a sterilized, sealed environment, the risk of contamination can be completely eliminated."

The research team plans to further enhance the system's performance through additional research. They aim to develop an intelligent management system that can autonomously assess cell conditions using artificial intelligence (AI), eliminating the need for human instructions. Kim stated, "We will work toward realizing a smart autonomous laboratory where cell-related research can be conducted entirely unmanned."