A Benchtop Robot and Automation Solution for Prefilled Syringes in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Abstract

Pharmaceutical manufacturing has strict requirements on the production environment, procedure, and product quality. Current manual operations face challenges in sterility, efficiency, and ergonomics. The introduction of industrial robotic arms can potentially meet biological manufacturing needs regarding ease to clean, high accuracy, and repeatability. This paper represents a benchtop robot and automation system aiming for the manufacturing of prefilled syringes. The system's hardware components include an ISO-certified robot manipulator (Yaskawa GP8), end-effector tools, cap feeding system, and telescoping transfer platform. A control system for the robot manipulator and Arduino is developed with the Robot Operating System-Industrial (ROS-Industrial). An interpolation method is applied in low-level control to realize linear trajectories of the robot's end-effector. Reliable filling, capping, and sealing are demonstrated to produce prefilled 60 mL syringe in 136 secs, Moreover, during a production run of 33 prefilled syringes, 32 are completed, with only one requiring human intervention due to cap misalignment of the syringe with the capping spout.