Eagle-eyed robot can catch the common fruit fly

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margin-right: 9px;">Robotics</a> </div> <h1 id="ar_title">Eagle-eyed robot can catch the common fruit fly</h1> <div class="summary_details_left"> <p>By <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/author/heidi-hoopes/" rel="author">Heidi Hoopes</a></p> <p><em>June 5, 2015</em></p> </div> <div class="summary_details_right"> <div class="has_comments"> <a href="#comments">3 Comments</a> </div> <div class="has_pictures"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/pictures">4 Pictures</a> </div> </div> </div> <div id="hero_box"> <a id="hero_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/pictures" name="hero_link"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230im_/http://images.gizmag.com/hero/drosophila-bot.jpg" data-at2x="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://images.gizmag.com/hero/drosophila-bot@2x.jpg" alt="Researchers use a robot augmented with machine vision to uniquely identify and quickly sort fruit flies"/> </a> <div class="pic_caption"> <p> Researchers use a robot augmented with machine vision to uniquely identify and quickly sort fruit flies (Credit: Stanford University) </p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/pictures" id="gallery_link" name="gallery_link">Image Gallery</a> (4 images) </div> <div class="clear_both"></div> </div>  <div class="article_body"> <div id="first_paragraph"> <p>Machine vision and robotic precision have combined in a new way to further fruit fly research. Scientists at Stanford's Bio-X program have developed a robot that can catch and sort the tiny creatures much faster than a human can, though to the flies themselves it must seem like an alien abduction.</p> </div> <ul id="gallery_images"> <li> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/pictures#1" class="image"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230im_/http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_tn/drosophila-bot-3.jpg" title="A fruit fly is safely and quickly sorted and identified, something that even skilled scientists find painstakingly slow" alt="A fruit fly is safely and quickly sorted and identified, something that even skilled scientists find painstakingly slow"/> </a> </li> <li> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/pictures#2" class="image"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230im_/http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_tn/drosophila-bot-2.jpg" title="A fruit fly is safely and quickly sorted and identified, something that even skilled scientists find painstakingly slow" alt="A fruit fly is safely and quickly sorted and identified, something that even skilled scientists find painstakingly slow"/> </a> </li> <li> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/pictures#3" class="image"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230im_/http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_tn/drosophila-bot-1.jpg" title="This robot's ability to quickly capture and identify fruit flies allows new areas of research and frees scientists from drudgery" alt="This robot's ability to quickly capture and identify fruit flies allows new areas of research and frees scientists from drudgery"/> </a> </li> </ul> <div class="clear_both"></div> <p>The fruit fly (or <em>Drosophila) </em>is one of the most important model organisms used in biomedical research – it's easy to care for and has a well-understood genome that maps well to ours. It's also very small at around 2.5 mm in length, so traditionally the sorting, sexing, and identification of these tiny beasts requires many monotonous human hours and anesthesia. This isn't always a good mix, as I once discovered when my biology classmate inhaled a little too much ether while mouth-pipetting.</p> <p>Using a beam of IR light invisible to the fly, the Stanford robot is able to identify individuals by the pattern reflected off the thorax. A small amount of suction is then applied to the thorax through tiny straw, safely lifting the fly and avoiding anesthesia.</p> <p><div class="article_img"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/pictures#2" target="_blank"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230im_/http://images.gizmag.com/inline/drosophila-bot-2.jpg" alt=""> </a> </div> </p> <p>Once restrained, the robot can identify the gender and physical characteristics of the fly and even prepare microdissections to analyze the brain.</p> <p>Associate professor of biology Mark Schnitzer and his team were even able to perform behavioral studies with the robot, exposing the flies to different odors and seeing how they responded. Such experiments were previously impossible because humans simply can't distinguish individual flies, nor see specific behaviors.</p> <p>In one experiment the robot was able to process 1000 flies in ten hours, unheard of for even an skilled scientist. The promise is not just that <em>Drosophila</em> scientists can spend more time doing, well, science, instead of moving flies, but that it also opens up new avenues of research.</p> <p>The amazing fly-abducting robot was described last month in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmeth.3410.html#videos" target="_blank"><em>Nature Methods</em></a>.</p> <p>The video below demonstrates the quick (and painless) lift and release via robot. </p> <p>Source: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/may/flies-robot-inspector-052515.html" target="_blank">Stanford</a></p> <p><div class="article_video"> <iframe width="530" height="398" src="//web.archive.org/web/20150613225230if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/mUWVWFqI1iE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <div class="clear_both"></div> </p> </div>  <span class="title share_bar">Share</span> <div id="article_share_bar" class="dotsontop share_bar"> <div class="as_button fb_as_button"> <div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/" data-send="false" data-layout="box_count" data-show-faces="false" data-share="true"></div> <script type="text/javascript"> _ga.trackFacebook(); </script> </div> <div class="as_button"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="vertical" data-via="gizmag" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/">Tweet</a> </div> <div class="as_button"> <div class="g-plusone" data-size="tall" data-href="http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/"></div> </div> <div class="as_button stumble_as_button"> <iframe style="overflow: hidden; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230if_/http://badge.stumbleupon.com/badge/embed/5/?url=http%3A//www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/" width="50" height="60" id="iframe-stmblpn-widget-1" name="iframe-stmblpn-widget-1"></iframe> </div> <div class="as_button"> <div class="pin-it-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230oe_/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/" data-image="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/drosophila-bot.jpg" data-description="Machine vision and robotic precision have combined in a new way to further fruit fly research. Scientists at Stanford's Bio-X program have developed a robot that can catch and sort the tiny creatures much faster than a human can, though to the flies themselves it must seem like an alien abduction."></div> </div> <div class="as_button"> <script type="IN/Share" data-counter="top"></script> </div> <div class="as_button" id="reddit_button_bar"> <script type="text/javascript"> reddit_newwindow='1' </script> </div> <div class="clear_both"></div> </div> <div class="ad "> <div class="ad-label">Advertisement</div> <script async src="//web.archive.org/web/20150613225230js_/http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle ad-article-bottom" style="" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1607124478120364" data-ad-slot="6055296962"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div>  <div id="outbrain"> <div class="OUTBRAIN" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230oe_/http://www.gizmag.com/fruit-fly-research-robot-machine-vision-stanford/37912/" data-widget-id="AR_1" data-ob-template="Gizmag"></div> <script type="text/javascript" async="async" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230js_/http://widgets.outbrain.com/outbrain.js"></script> </div>  <span class="title clear_left" id="author_byline_title">About the Author</span> <div class="dotsontop" id="authorcontainer"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/author/heidi-hoopes/"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230im_/http://images.gizmag.com/CACHE/images/avatars/193.dff7a48ce399.jpg" alt="Heidi Hoopes" id="bio_pic" name="bio_pic"/> </a> Heidi measures her life with the motley things she's done in the name of scientific exploration. While formally educated in biology and chemistry, informally she learns from adventures and hobbies with her family. Her simple pleasures in life are finding turtles while jogging and obsessively winnowing through her genetic data. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/author/heidi-hoopes/">All articles by Heidi Hoopes</a> <span id="author_byline_links"></span> <br class="clear_both"/> </div>  <div id="tags"> <span class="title">Tags</span> <div class="dotsontop"> <ul> <li>» <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/robot/" rel="tag">Robot</a></li> <li>» <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/stanford%2Buniversity/" rel="tag">Stanford University</a></li> <li>» <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/research/" rel="tag">Research</a></li> <li>» <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613225230/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/fruit-flies/" rel="tag">Fruit Flies</a></li> </ul> <div class="clear_both"></div> </div> </div>  <div id="bing_unit"></div>  <span class="title" id="comments">3 Comments</span> <div class="dotsontop"> <div id="comment-379592" class="a_comment"> <p>Need a mass produced version to catch flying insects inside.</p> <span class="name">Douglas Rogers</span> </div> <div id="comment-379560" class="a_comment"> <p>My mother had done a research on the Drosophila fly some 80 years ago and got her BSc degree for this research from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. As an Entomologist she collected all kind of insects and her love for the tiny animal world brought me to study biology in High school further on. The results of your research is really amazing.</p> <span class="name">alx</span> </div> <div id="comment-379528" class="a_comment"> <p>this is a really big deal for funamental biology and genetics . </p> <p>I predicted a technology like this years ago. and it's finally here. </p> <p>people still don't accept how much we have yet to learn from flies that really isn't possible from other model organisms like nematodes (too simple) or zebra fish ( too wet and watery) </p> <p>there is nothing so large and complex as a fly that reproduces so fast. </p> <p>they are a jewel of biology made specially by nature for the benefit of scientists. </p> <p>this system will help milk volumes of understanding about genetics/epigenetics and pheno-geno type networks than ever before. </p> <span class="name">zevulon</span> </div> </div>  <a name="comment_form"></a> <span class="title">Post a Comment</span> <div class="dotsontop" id="comment_form_div"> <div id="comment_form" data-article="37912"> <div 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