Proposal and Modeling by Simscape Multibody of a Mechatronic Device for Breast Cancer Cells Experiments

The paper is focused on a new device proposal to automate a laboratory process and observe the behavior of breast cancer cells when they are placed on Petri dishes. The experiment samples are observed during the pouring of a culture fluid on the cells to feed them with the subsequent clean-up operation from the waste products. This process is normally done manually with an operator who feeds and empties the Petri dishes. The proposed prototype allows to automatically perform experiments with a first phase where the cells are fed and a second phase where the waste generated by the cells is eliminated using a fluidic system. Since breast cancer cells show a three-dimensional growth, their observation must be performed by placing the Petri dishes in a clinostat. Therefore, the designed prototype is conceived to be placed on a clinostat to perform experiments that allow to follow the three-dimensional growth of the cells while they are fed and cleaned by waste. The fluidic device is modeled by Simscape Multibody, as a preliminary study where the simulations show some results in terms of feeding/emptying times that will be useful for setting the working conditions and operations of the device.