Test Assurance Group (TAG)
During the Covid 19 crisis the Test Assurance Group (TAG) set up a mass screening programme for antibodies to assist HMG and other major employers.
Rapid Test kits provided the diagnosis but the real challenge was how to process, read and record the results on a massive scale whilst avoiding the cross infection risks of using Health Care Professionals.
Smart Lab Tech & MedTech
The CAL SmartLab division worked with TAG to develop the requirement and deliver the optimum solution by integrating a cutting edge robot arm with a high resolution vision system, a test RFID tagging system and a software application that allowed each test to be tracked independently from register to results via their Smartphone App.
CAL works as a systems innovator and integrator with a leading international MedTech suppliers to develop the clients brief and then deliver the optimised solution dependent on functionality, cost and speed. In this case the optimum solution was integrating RFID sample recognition with the new KUKA KR 3 Agilus robot to manipulate test cassettes for the specified time period before reading the results using the Cognex D900 Vision System. TAG needed to use Covid 19 Test Kits from multiple pharmaceutical suppliers and so the SmartLab system was set up to automatically recognise and modify the process, including incubation time period and test interpretation, depending on which test was used. Finally all results were securely held in a cloud based database ensuring all GDPR requirements were satisfied.
The ultimate objective of any SmartLab solution is to recieve MHRA (or national equivalent) certification so that SmartLab technology can ultimately replace Health Care Professionals. Once that has been achieved the technology can deliver at a speed, scale and precision that is far beyond any human can possibly match.