A force-controlled robotic micromanipulation system for mechanotransduction studies of Drosophila larvae.

This paper presents an automated robotic micromanipulation system capable of force-controlled mechanical stimulation and fluorescence imaging of Drosophila larvae, for mechanotransduction studies of Drosophila neural circuitry. An elastomeric microdevice is developed for efficient immobilization of an array of larvae for subsequent force-controlled touching. A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based force sensor is integrated into the system for closed-loop force control of larva touching at a resolution of 50 μN. Two microrobots are coordinately servoed using orchestrated position and force control laws for automatic operations. The system performs simultaneous force-controlled larva touching and fluorescence imaging at a speed of 4 larvae per minute, with a success rate of 92.5%. This robotic system will greatly facilitate the dissection of mechanotransduction mechanisms of Drosophila larvae at both the molecular and cellular levels.