iHexagon - Development, construction and testing of an intelligent, multi-variant, autonomous, mobile laboratory furniture system with LIMS connectivity as the basis for functionally integrative elements in the laboratory of the future

Laboratories have to meet the highest quality standards and at the same time keep their operating and analysis costs at a moderate level in order to be able to offer services at current market prices. Digitization and automation have already developed a large number of solutions that allow routine laboratories specializing in certain biochemical, genetic or pharmacological tests to greatly increase their sample throughput, improve the quality of their analyzes and reduce costs. However, the majority of these solutions cannot be used flexibly, which often makes them unsuitable for many smaller laboratories or laboratories in the fields of research and development, pharmaceutical and environmental analysis due to rapidly changing tasks.

iHexagon design — Fig. 1: Computer simulation of the planned laboratory furniture system consisting of the autonomous movement modules (a), the adapter elements to the laboratory space (b), the adjustable edge bead (c), data and energy coupling (d) and the integrated IT connectivity (e).

In the iHexagon research project, the project partners from various industries will develop the core elements for a dynamic, intelligent and autonomous laboratory furniture concept. These include a new type of laboratory furniture system, the first integration of universally applicable collaborating robots and an innovative, horizontally and vertically networked information technology management system that can map the newly gained flexibility and control the diverse processes.