The present disclosure is a national stage for International Application PCT/CN2017/108326, filed on Oct. 30, 2017, which claims priority benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201710010509.8 filed on Jan. 6, 2017, and entitled “Reaction Incubation Device, Immunity Analyzer and Reaction Incubation Method”, the entire contents of both applications are incorporated herein for all purposes.
The present disclosure relates to a field of in-vitro diagnostic equipment, in particular to a reaction incubation device, an immunoassay analyzer and an automatic analysis apparatus and a reaction incubation method thereof.
Automatic immunoassay is based on immunological reactions in which antigen and antibody bind to each other, relates the optical or electrical signal to the analyte concentration through a series of cascade amplification reactions by labeling the antigen antibody with the enzyme label, lanthanide label or chemiluminescent agent, to analyze the antigen or antibody to be tested in the human sample, which is mainly applied in the clinical lab of the hospital, the third-party independent laboratory, the blood test center, etc., to perform quantitative, semi-quantitative or qualitative testing of the contents of various analytes in human body fluid, so as to diagnose the infectious disease, tumor, endocrine function, cardiovascular disease, prenatal and postnatal care, and the autoimmune disease.
Referring to
1) One-step protocol: referring to
2) One-step delay protocol: which differs from the one-step protocol in that the reagent is dispensed in twice, two incubations are required, the first incubation is performed after the first reagent is dispensed and mixed, and the second reagent is dispensed and mixed after the first incubation is finished. One more incubation, reagent dispensing, and mixing action than the one-step protocol, and the rest of the flow is the same as the one-step protocol.
3) Two-step protocol: which differs from the one-step protocol in that one more bound-free step, and the other steps are the same.
In the incubation steps of the above flow, the existing specific implementation technique solution are generally divided into two manners: fixed-time incubation and variable-time incubation. In the fixed-time incubation manner, all incubation testing time of each testing protocol are the same, for example, all one-step tests can only implement 20 minutes of incubation, and all two-step tests can only implement 10 minutes of the first incubation and 10 minutes of the second incubation, etc. Due to differences of a specific assay in the reagent material, formulation, production process, reaction principle and condition, such fixed-time incubation may increase the difficulty of the reagent development or sacrifice some test performances during the actual development and testing, such as sensitivity, etc., and thus is difficult to adapt to multiple different assays. Contrary to the constraints and limitations of the fixed-time incubation method on the reagent development and performance, the variable-time incubation method is flexible and adaptable, and can set the incubation time for different flexibility of each assay, i.e., each assay can implement its own optimum incubation time. The variable-time incubation method can reduce the constraint on the reagent development and gives full play to the performance of the reagent. In order to implement the variable-time incubation, the existing technical solution generally adopts an independent incubation tray only for implementing the incubation. The incubation tray needs multiple times of rotating and stopping in one test cycle, and the angle of each rotation is determined according to the incubation time. This technical solution has the disadvantages of complicated control, difficult technical implementation and unsuitable for high-speed automated testing and so on.
In order to solve the deficiencies and problems ubiquitous in the prior art, the present disclosure provides a reaction incubation apparatus which is simple and reliable in control, flexible and efficient in the incubation flow and method, and an immunoassay analyzer having the reaction incubation apparatus, and also provides a reaction incubation method.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, a reaction incubation apparatus includes: a reaction unit configured to carry and incubate a reaction vessel, a transferring unit configured to transfer the reaction vessel into or out of the reaction unit; in which the reaction unit includes a rotating apparatus provided with an incubation position, the incubation position is advanced by a predetermined angle θ at an interval of fixed time T with the rotating apparatus; the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel out of the incubation position according to a variable incubation time t1.
According to another aspect of the disclosure, an immunoassay analyzer is provided with the reaction incubation apparatus.
According to another aspect of the disclosure, a reaction incubation method is provided, which includes: a transferring-in step: a transferring unit transfers a reaction vessel containing reactants into an incubation position of a reaction unit; an incubating step: the reaction vessel is carried forward by a predetermined angle θ at an interval of fixed time T in the incubation position with a rotating apparatus, and incubated for a variable incubation time t1=(Ω/θ)T; where the Ω is a total forward angle of the reaction vessel in the incubation position with the rotating apparatus, and the Ω is an integer multiple of the θ; a transferring-out step: the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel out of the incubation position of the reaction unit after an incubation time t1.
The reaction incubation apparatus of the disclosure is carried forward by a predetermined angle θ at an interval of fixed time T, and the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel out of the incubation position according to the variable incubation time t1.
The disclosure can not only implement flexible and variable incubation time and make the control simple and efficient, but also simultaneously implement washing and/or measuring on the reaction incubation apparatus, such that the structure of the immunoassay analyzer is more simple, reliable, compact and the cost is lower, thereby effectively solving the problems in the prior art that in order to implement the variable incubation time, the control is complicated, the reliability is low, the high-speed automation is difficult to implement, and the washing and/or measuring cannot be simultaneously implemented.
The present disclosure will be further described in detail below through embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
A reaction incubation apparatus provided by the present disclosure includes: a reaction unit configured to carry and incubate a reaction vessel; and a transferring unit configured to move the reaction vessel into and out of the reaction unit. The reaction unit includes a rotating apparatus provided with an incubation position. The incubation position is advanced by a predetermined angle θ at an interval of fixed time T with the rotating apparatus. The transferring unit moves the reaction vessel out of the incubation position according to a variable incubation time t1.
A first embodiment of the reaction incubation apparatus of the present disclosure is described with reference to
The reaction unit 10 carries and incubates a reaction vessel containing the reactant. The reaction unit 10 mainly includes the heat preservation device and a rotating device. The periphery of the heat preservation apparatus usually has a heat insulating material such as heat preservation cotton, and a heating apparatus and a sensor may be disposed on the side or the bottom inside of the heat preservation apparatus, and the upper portion thereof is generally a cover plate structure, etc., to provide a constant temperature incubation environment for the reaction unit and prevent or reduce heat loss of the reaction unit. Of course, for higher heat transferring efficiency, the heating apparatus can also be mounted on the rotating apparatus. Preferably, the number of the rotating apparatus is one, which includes a driving mechanism, a transmission mechanism and an associated control circuit, etc., to control and drive the rotating apparatus to rotate by a predetermined angle θ at an interval of fixed time (such as a cycle or a cycle T), and carry the reaction vessel forward by a certain position (such as advancing by a reaction vessel position). The rotating apparatus is provided with a plurality of independent holes, periods, brackets, bases or other structures suitable for carrying the reaction vessels, which are defined as the reaction vessel positions. In the present disclosure, the heat preservation apparatus of the reaction unit 10 is a pot body 12 and an upper cover (not shown), and the rotating apparatus is a reaction tray 11. The reaction tray 11 is rotatable about a central axis, and is provided with four circles of reaction vessel positions (11a, 11b, 11c, 11d) centered on the center of rotation. Of course, the number of the circle can be changed, for example, one circle, two circles, 3 or more circles, etc. each circle is provided with several reaction vessel positions, and the number of the reaction vessel positions on each circle may be the same or different. In this embodiment, 30 reaction vessel positions are provided at each circle, and the reaction vessel positions on the four circles are all incubation positions for receiving and incubating the reaction vessels containing the reactants. In order to indicate a physical position of some reaction vessel on the rotating apparatus at a certain time, an absolute coordinate system is set, and the number is progressively increased counterclockwise as 1, 2, 3 . . . 30.
The transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel between different positions of the reaction incubation apparatus 100. The transferring unit can be any suitable mechanism which can transfer or move the reaction vessel. The preferred transferring unit of the present disclosure mainly includes a driving mechanism, a horizontal movement mechanical arm, a gripping-releasing mechanism, and the like. The gripping-releasing mechanism is usually mechanical fingers, which can grip and release the reaction vessel. The horizontal movement mechanical arm can be driven by the driving mechanism to move the gripping-releasing mechanism along the X direction, the Y direction, the X direction and the Y direction, the radial direction, the circumferential direction, the radial direction and the circumferential direction, etc., so as to move the reaction vessel caught by the gripping-releasing mechanism to different positions. In addition to the horizontal movement, the transferring unit 20 can also move up and down, to place the reaction vessels in different positions or taking them out of the different positions. According to the different testing speed and overall layout, one or more transferring units may be provided. In the embodiment, one transferring unit 20 is provided, which can do three-dimensional motion, such that whole apparatus is more compact and the cost is lower. The transferring unit 20 includes an X-direction movement mechanical arm 20a, a Y-direction movement mechanical arm 20b, a Y-direction guide rail 20c, a vertical movement mechanism and mechanical fingers (not shown). The transferring unit 20 can simultaneously move the mechanical fingers horizontally along the X direction and the Y direction, and the horizontal movement range covers a range within a boundary rectangle 26, i.e., all the reaction vessel positions (incubation positions) on the reaction tray 11 are within the horizontal movement range of the transferring unit 20. In this way, the transferring unit 20 can implement the flexible incubation time through placing the reaction vessels in different incubation positions or transferring the reaction vessels out of different incubation positions.
The reaction tray 11 is rotated by a predetermined angle θ (in the present embodiment, θ=12 degrees) at an interval of fixed time T (in the present embodiment, T=24 s, which is a time of one test cycle), and can be rotated counterclockwise or clockwise, for example, rotated by 12 degrees counterclockwise every 24 seconds and advanced by one reaction vessel position. As for the time sequence of actions of the reaction tray, reference is made to
In the following description, a one-step protocol test for 5 minutes of incubation is taken as an example, and the reaction incubation flow and steps of the reaction incubation apparatus 100 are briefly described with reference to
Step 200: the transferring unit moves the reaction vessel into the incubation position. In the stop time period (time C1 to C2) while the reaction tray 11 stops rotating, the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel containing the reactant to an incubation position at an absolute positions 1, which may be located in any one of the four circles, for example, the incubation position on the outer circle 11d at the absolute position 1 is selected.
Step 201: reaction vessel incubation time t1. The reaction vessel is rotated counterclockwise by a predetermined angle θ=12° with the reaction tray 11 every cycle T=24 seconds, and carried forward by one reaction vessel position. After 12 cycles T, the total angle Ω of the reaction vessel in the incubation position carried forward with the rotating apparatus is 144° at the absolute position 13, and the implemented incubation time is t1=(Ω/θ) T+C0=4.8+0.2=5 minutes. In this embodiment, the constant C0=0.2 minutes.
Step 202: the transferring unit moves the reaction vessel out of the incubation position. After the incubation time t1, the transferring unit 20 moves the reaction vessel containing the reactant out of the incubation position on the outer circle 11d at the absolute position 13 within the stop time period (time C3 to C4) during which the reaction tray stops rotating.
Those skilled in the art should understand that, as for the one-step delay protocol and two-step protocol that require two incubations, the variability of each incubation time can be implemented in accordance with a similar flow and method.
As can be seen from the above description, in the present embodiment, the variable incubation time implemented in the incubation position is t1=(Ω/θ)T+C0, where Ω is the total angle of the reaction vessel in the incubation position carried forward with the rotating apparatus, and Ω is an integral multiple of θ, C0 is a constant no greater than T. In particular, in the present embodiment, in order to implement longer incubation time, the total angle Ω of the reaction vessel in the incubation position on the reaction tray carried forward with the reaction tray includes a value greater than 360°, i.e., the variable incubation time t1 includes a value greater than (360°/θ) T. In this way, the reaction vessel is rotated and carried forward in the incubation position with the reaction tray, and the transferring unit moves the reaction vessel into or out of the incubation position on the reaction tray at a different position, thereby implementing a flexible and variable incubation time.
As can be seen from the above description, in the present embodiment, the reaction tray is advanced by a predetermined angle at an interval of fixed time, to transfer the incubation position thereon to different positions. The horizontal movement range of the transferring unit covers all the incubation positions on the reaction tray, and can move the reaction vessel in or out of the incubation position from different positions. Through this layout and coordinated action of the transferring unit and the reaction tray, not only flexible incubation time can be implemented, but also the multiple rotating and stopping and the uncertainty of each rotating angle of the reaction tray in one cycle in the prior art can be avoided, thereby reducing the control difficulty and complexity, and improving the testing efficiency of the whole apparatus.
As for a second embodiment of the invention, reference is made to
The measuring apparatus 40 measures the signal in the reaction vessel. The signal is an electrical signal, a fluorescent signal or a weak chemiluminescence signal generated after adding the signal reagent into the reaction vessel. The measuring apparatus 40 includes a weak photodetector photomultiplier tube (PMT) or other sensitive photo-sensing apparatus that can convert the measured optical signal into an electrical signal and transmit the electrical signal to the control center. Furthermore, in order to improve the measurement efficiency and ensure the measurement uniformity, the measuring apparatus 40 may further include optical apparatus such as optical signal collecting and calibrating apparatus. The weak chemiluminescence signal is taken as an example, in order to avoid the interference of the ambient light, the measuring apparatus 40 of the present disclosure is mounted in a reaction unit to measure a reaction signal in a reaction vessel position of the reaction unit. This may make full use of the reaction vessel position on the reaction unit, to make the whole apparatus more compact and the cost less.
According to the test condition, the reaction vessel needed to be incubated is first incubated in the incubation position of the third inner circles 11a, 11b, 11c for a certain time or after completing the incubation, and then transferred to the outer circumference of the reaction tray for washing and measuring or transferred to a position other than the reaction incubation apparatus 100 to perform the corresponding operation. It should be noted that the reaction vessel can complete the incubation on the three inner circles 11a, 11b, 11c, and then the reaction vessel is transferred to the outer circle 11d for washing, or after completing a certain cycle of incubation on the three inner circles 11a, 11b, 11c, for example, the incubation for the most of time is completed, then transferred to the outer circle 11d, and then the incubation for the remaining time is completed during the process of transferring the reaction tray to the magnetic separation apparatus. In the former implementation, the outer circle 11d does not require an additional reaction vessel position for the incubation, which allows the reaction tray to be smaller in size and lower in cost. For the latter implementation, for example, if a tested reaction vessel needs to be incubated for twenty-five minutes, it is possible to complete the incubation for the most of time, such as 24 minutes, on one or several circles of the three inner circles 11a, 11b, and 11c, and then the reaction vessel is transferred to the outer circle 11d and the incubation for the remaining 1 minute is completed before transferring to the B/F unit. This kind of solution can appropriately reduce the number of incubation positions on the three inner circles because the outer circle shares a portion of the incubation function, thereby balancing the number of incubation positions on the inside and outer circles, so as to optimize the size of the reaction tray and fully utilize the internal space of the reaction tray.
It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the reaction incubation flows and steps of the present embodiment are similar to those of the first embodiment. Similarly, with reference to
Step 200: the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel into the incubation vessel: in the stop period of time (time C1 to C2) during which the reaction tray 11 stops rotating, the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel containing the reactant to the incubation position at the absolute position 1, which may be any one of the three inner circles, such as the incubation position on the inner circle 11a at the absolute position 1 is selected.
Step 201: the reaction vessel is incubated for time t1: the reaction vessel is rotated counterclockwise by a predetermined angle θ=12° every cycle T=24 seconds with the reaction tray 11, and is carried forward by one reaction vessel position. After twelve cycles of T, the reaction vessel in the incubation position is carried forward by a total angle Ω=144° with the rotating apparatus to the absolute position 13, and the implemented incubation time is t1=(Ω/θ)T+C0=4.8+0.2=5 minutes. In this embodiment, the constant C0=0.2 minutes.
Step 202: The transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel out of incubation position: after the incubation time t1, the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel containing the reactants out of the incubation position on the inner circle 11a at the absolute position 13 in the stop period of time (time C3 to C4) during which the reaction tray stops rotating.
If the incubation is performed for time t1 or the incubation is completed, the test requires washing and measuring, then the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel to the reaction vessel position on the outer circle 11d at the absolute position 15. According to different test conditions, the reaction vessel can continue to be incubated for time t0 (t00, which is the incubation time of the reaction vessel implemented in other position other than the incubation position of the rotating apparatus) on the outer circle 11d before transferring to the B/F apparatus 30, or is no longer incubated but directly transferred to the B/F apparatus 30. In this embodiment, after the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel to the reaction vessel position on the outer circle 11d at the absolute position 15 and after two more cycles, the reaction vessel passes through the B/F apparatus 30, so the implemented incubation time on the outer circle 11d is to =48 seconds. Therefore, the total incubation time that can be implemented by the automatic reaction incubation apparatus 100 of the present embodiment is t=t1+t0=5.8 minutes. After the completion of the incubation, the reaction vessel is transferred under the rotation of the reaction tray 11 to pass through the B/F apparatus 30 and subjected to multi-stage washing by the B/F apparatus 30: and when passing through the measuring apparatus 40 under the rotation of the rotating tray, the measuring apparatus 40 measures the signal in the reaction vessel. It should be noted that, in other embodiments, after transferring the reaction vessel out of the incubation position but before passing into the B/F apparatus 30, the incubation may not be continued, then the total incubation time is t=t1=5 minutes.
Those skilled in the art may appreciate that for the one-step delay and two-step protocol that requires two incubations, this embodiment can also implement the variability of each incubation time in a similar manner.
As can be seen from the above description, in the present embodiment, the variable incubation time implemented by the incubation position of the reaction tray is t1=(Ω/θ)T+C0, where Ω is the total forward angle of the reaction vessel in the incubation position with the rotating apparatus, and Ω is an integer multiple of θ, and C0 is a constant not greater than T. In particular, in the present embodiment, in order to implement a longer incubation time, the total forward angle Ω of the reaction vessel in the incubation position of the reaction tray with the rotating apparatus includes a value greater than 360°, i.e., the variable incubation time t1 includes a value greater than (360°/θ) T. In this way, the reaction vessel is carried forward in the incubation position with the rotation of the reaction tray, and the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel into or out of the incubation position of the reaction tray from different positions, thereby implementing a flexible and variable incubation time.
A third embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in
In the embodiment, the reaction vessel positions on the middle two circles 11b, 11c are the incubation positions, which mainly implement the incubation function. The reaction vessel position on the inner circle 11a mainly implements the function of washing. The reaction vessel position on the outer circle 11d mainly implements the function of measurement. Of course, the reaction vessel position on the inner circle 11a can also implement part of the incubation function in the process of transferring the reaction vessel to the B/F apparatus. During the test, the reaction vessel to be incubated is first transferred by the transferring unit 20 into one of the middle two circles 11b, 11c, after the incubation is completed or the incubation is performed in a certain period of time and the washing is required, the reaction vessel is transferred out of the middle two circles 11b, 11c and then into the inner circle 11a by the transferring unit 20; through the rotating transference of the reaction tray, the B/F apparatus 30 perform the multi-stage washing on the reaction vessel: when the washing is completed, the reaction vessel is transferred out of the inner circle 11d by the transferring unit 20; if the measurement is required, the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel into the outer circle 11d; and the reaction vessel is transferred to the measuring apparatus for measurement under the rotation of the reacting tray.
It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other units of the embodiment are the same as or similar to the second embodiment. The incubation flows and steps of the embodiment are described with reference to
Step 200: the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel into the incubation position: in the stop period of time (time C1 to C2) during which the reaction tray 11 stops rotating, the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel containing the reactants to the incubation position at the absolute position 1, which may be one of the middle two circles 11b, 11c, for example, the incubation position on the middle circle 11c at the absolute position 1 is selected.
Step 201: the reaction vessel is incubated for the time t1: the reaction vessel is rotated counterclockwise by a predetermined angle θ=12° every cycle T=24 seconds with the reaction tray 11, and is carried forward by one reaction vessel position. After thirty cycles of T, the total forward angle of the reaction vessel at the incubation position with the reaction tray is Ω=360°, i.e., the reaction vessel goes back to the absolute position 1, and the implemented incubation time is t1=(Ω/θ)T+C0=12+0.2=12.2 minutes. In this embodiment, the constant C0=0.2 minutes.
Step 202: the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel out of the incubation position: after the incubation is performed for the time t1, the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel containing the reactants out of incubation position on the middle circle 11c at the absolute position 1 during the (time C3 to C4).
If the incubation is performed for the time t1 or the incubation is completed and the test requires washing and measuring, the transferring unit 20 first transfers the reaction vessel to the inner circle 11a at the absolute position 1 for washing, and after thirty cycles of T, to the outer circle 11d at the absolute position for measuring. According to different test conditions, the reaction vessel can continue to be incubated for time to on the inner circle (t0θ, which is the incubation time implemented by the reaction vessel at a position other than the incubation position of the rotating apparatus) before being transferred to the B/F apparatus 30, or the reaction vessel is no longer incubated but directly transferred to the B/F apparatus 30. In this embodiment, after the transferring unit 20 transfers the reaction vessel to the inner circle 11a at the absolute position 1 and after one more cycle, the reaction vessel passes through the B/F apparatus 30, thus the implementable incubation time on the inner circle 11a is t0=24 seconds. The total incubation time that can be implemented by the reaction incubation apparatus of this example is t=t1+t0=12.6 minutes. After the incubation is completed, the reaction vessel is transferred under the rotation of the reaction tray and passes through the B/F apparatus 30, the B/F apparatus 30 performs the multi-stage washing on the reaction vessel. When the reaction vessel is transferred back to the reaction vessel position on the inner circle 11a at the absolute position 1 after completing the washing, the reaction vessel is located under the movement track of the transferring unit 20, and is transferred to the outer circle 11d by the transferring unit 20 for measurement. When the reaction vessel is transferred under the rotation of the reaction tray to pass through the measuring apparatus 40, the measuring apparatus 30 measures the signal in the reaction vessel. It should be noted that in other embodiments, the reaction vessel does not continue to be incubated after being transferred out of the incubation position while before passing into the B/F apparatus 30, then the implemented total incubation time is t=t1=12.2 minutes.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that for the one-step delay and two-step protocol that requires two incubations, this embodiment can also implement the variability of each incubation time according to the incubation follows and method.
As can be seen from the above description, in the embodiment, the variable incubation time implemented by the incubation position is t1=(Ω/θ)T+C0, where Ω is the total forward angle of the reaction vessel in the incubation position with the rotating apparatus, Ω is an integral multiple of θ, and C0 is a constant not greater than T. In particular, in the embodiment, in order to implement two or more incubation time, the total forward angle Ω of the reaction vessel in incubation position of the reaction tray with the rotating apparatus includes at least one value greater than 360°, i.e., the variable incubation time t1 includes at least one value greater than (360°/θ) T. In this way, the reaction vessel can be carried forward by multiple rounds in the incubation position with the rotation of the reaction tray, so as to implement a flexible and variable incubation time.
An embodiment of the present invention provides an immunoassay analyzer on which the reaction incubation apparatus is provided.
The embodiment of the present invention further provides a reaction incubation method, which specifically includes:
a transferring-in step: a transferring unit transfers a reaction vessel containing reactants into an incubation position of a reaction unit;
an incubating step: the reaction vessel is carried forward by a predetermined angle θ at an interval of fixed time T in the incubation position with the rotating apparatus, and the incubation is performed by a variable incubation time t1=(Ω/θ)T, where the Ω is a total forward angle of the reaction vessel in the incubation position with the rotating apparatus, and the Ω is an integer multiple of the θ:
a transferring-out step: the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel out of the incubation position of the reaction unit after the incubation time t1.
Furthermore, the total forward angle Ω of the reaction vessel with the rotating apparatus includes at least one value greater than 360°, i.e., the incubation time t1 includes at least one value greater than (360°/θ) T. The total incubation time implemented by the reaction incubation method is t=t1+t0, where t00, which is the incubation time implemented by the reaction vessel at a position other than the incubation position of the rotating apparatus.
The reaction incubation apparatus of the present disclosure is advanced by a predetermined angle θ at an interval of fixed time T, and the transferring unit transfers the reaction vessel out of the incubation position according to the variable incubation time t1. The disclosure can not only implement flexible and variable incubation time and make the control simple and efficient, but also simultaneously implement washing and/or measuring on the reaction incubation apparatus, such that the structure of the immunoassay analyzer is more simple, reliable, compact and the cost is lower, thereby effectively solving the problems in the prior art that in order to implement the variable incubation time, the control is complicated, the reliability is low, the high-speed automation is difficult to implement, and the washing and/or measuring cannot be implemented simultaneously.
The technical features or operational steps described in the embodiments of the present invention may be combined in any suitable manner. It will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the order of the steps or actions in the methods described in the embodiments of the present invention can be changed. Therefore, unless otherwise stated in a certain order, any order in the drawings or the detailed description is merely for the purpose of illustration, but not a necessary order.
Various embodiments of the present invention may include various steps, which may be embodied as machine-executable instructions that can be executed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer (or other electronic apparatus). Alternatively, these steps may be performed by hardware elements including a specific logic circuitry for performing the steps or by a combination of the hardware, software and/or firmware.
The present disclosure has been described through specific embodiments, but the disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications, equivalents, changes, and the like may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In addition, the “one embodiment”, “this embodiment” and the like described above in various places represent different embodiments, and of course, all or part of them may be combined in one embodiment.
The above-mentioned embodiments are merely illustrative of several embodiments of the present invention, and the description thereof is more specific and detailed, but is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure. It should be noted that a number of variations and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims.
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