The StageMaster 2000 is a platform robot that captures images of the entire surface of up to 6 cylindrical vials over a user-defined period of time and an input number of evenly spaced repetitions.

(Example: Over four hours, image each vial 8 times -> the entire process would run about once every 25 minutes)

These images are stored locally and uploaded to dropbox in a file system branched by vial, by repetition, and are individually timestamped. 

After each imaging run, the camera resets for the next repetition, and the power to the motors and lights switch off for energy conservation and system longevity. 

The Zipursky Lab at UCLA analyzes images of genetically modified drosophila melanogaster during their larval developmental period to research neuronal development with potential application to the human species. They required a system that would automate their research process of manually removing a vial of fly larvae from an incubator and individually marking each cocoon every hour, on the hour to determine exact time of cocoon development. I was contacted due to my past experience with automating processes, and I accepted a contract to design, fabricate and program a functional system.

After brainstorming various models, I settled on using a Raspberry Pi 3B+ for the controller, two Nema 17 stepper motors, one for linear motion of the camera attachment, and one for rotational motion of the stationary vials, driven by a timing belt threaded through the six GT2 pulleys and corresponding tensioners. I used optical endstops at the midpoint of each of the vials to control the position of the camera module, timing belts and microstepping to ensure the rotational motion was precise, and did not require mechanical or electrical encoding.

A consumer motor driver (Adafruit motorHAT) was used for economical reasons. The entire software portion was coded using Python and is available to look at here: Github