Team:NCTU Formosa/Hardware
SSIS: Smart Solar Incubating System
SSIS Introduction
To allow for efficient protein expression without constant attention, we designed an
environmentally-friendly, safe, and responsive culturing device and developed software for remote
control.
Figure 1: This is how SSIS works.
SSIS Design
After we have E.Hybrid, how can we prove its feature and bring this idea into industry?
Furthermore, how can E.Hybrid change our daily lives and help us?
Synthetic biology can benefit people in many places, but mass production can't leave
from factories. People still need a level of financial ability to get closed and have part of gifts
from it. Why don't we give up mass production, and
just provide ourselves enough amount? Yes, you got the point. This is what we noticed and are
concerned about. To break this bottleneck, we not only create a strain of E.coli fed on the
sun, but also build a device depend on
the sunlight, which we name it SSIS－Smart Solar Incubating System.
When we designed SSIS, we took environmentally-friendly usages and how to support
E.Hybrid directly use sunlight as part of its energy source into account. To achieve them, SSIS is
constructed of five main classes to reach our purpose:
the system-protecting parts, incubation system, storage unit, solar stove, and other devices.
- System-protecting parts: prevent the function from being directly exposed to the danger factor which may damage the functions from the outside environment, such as rain and animals.
- Incubation system: Where E.Hybrid be cultured. We minimize the requirements of a normal incubator and provide minimal conditions for E.Hybrid to live and grow.
- Storage unit: After sterilized, the product is stored here and colds down.
- Solar stove: It is the key class to quarantee the biosafety, with concentrated heat and UV to sterilize.
- Other: Some essential parts to execute certain functions, such as pump.
Figure 2(a): SSIS Design
We have successfully built it as Fig. 2(b) shows, and tested it to know the function of
its separated parts.
Figure 2(b): SSIS Device
Click the Parts to know the details!
SSIS Function Tests
Solar Stove Tests
- After putting the solar stove under the sun for 20 minutes, temperatures rose to 70 °C and were steadily maintained.
- The average temperature is 40 ~ 50 °C under the sunlight.
More information is in Safety
Figure 3: The measurement of water in our solar stove with arduino sensor
K853518(temperature)
Figure 4: The measurement of air in our solar stove with arduino sensor K853518(temperature)
Figure 5: Live view of measuring temperature
After temperature measurements, we simulate the real conditon with the dry bath
incubator. We set 50 and 70 degree Celsius to heat bacteria, and results are in Fig. 6. Other than
bacteria cultured for 0.5h at 50 degree Celsius in Fig.
6(a), all of them had been successfully sterilized which can prove the feasibility of the solar
stove.
Figure 6(a): Sterilization Experiments in 50 degree Celsius
Figure 6(b): Sterilization Experiments in 50&70 degree Celsius
Figure 6(c): Sterilization Experiments in 70 degree Celsius
How does our pump work?
- We drive it with the servo motor, MG996R.
- We use two tubes which have inside diameter of 2mm and outside diameter of 4mm .
Figure 7: the working mechanism of our pump
Video 1: Tests of our pump
Energy and incubation system
To make SSIS available in the wild, we design an energy system that depends on the
sunlight. Like E.Hybrid are "fed" on the sunlight, we make our device have the same property just
like E.Hybrid.
With solar energy, we can have completed supple of energy. Due to biosafety, we did our
functional test of incubation in the lab with simulate light source and stable energy supply.
See the result of test of energy system and incubation at Demonstration
Figure 8: Practical Incubator
Software
Overview
Ideally, the final version of SSIS will be fully automated. The first step in achieving
that goal was developing software for remote control.
With IoT and simple Arduino sensors, we can collect E.Hybrid growth conditions and act
accordingly and conveniently.
Circuit
We use solar panels as the energy source of SSIS. By connecting to the voltage
transformer, the voltage stabilizer and the YUN, we create a system that converts sunlight into
electricity to power the rest of the device.
Some electronic devices like motors and heaters, which consume more energy, are directly
connected to additional solar panels for access to larger voltage supply.
All circuits are protected in wooden shell and are unexposed to the sun.
Figure 9(a): Circuit Design
Figure 9(b): Practical Circuit
OD-meter validation
We use the turbidity meter, SEN0189, to measure OD600.
The definition of OD, optical density, is similar to that of turbidity. As stated in the
scattering theorem, the less light received by a light receptor, the higher the concentration of
opaque particles, and thus OD.
By fitting the detected voltage and OD600 measured from a spectrophotometer, we obtained
a simple formula to convert the value between voltage and OD600.
Figure 10: Conversion of voltage to OD600 in LB broth
Figure 11: Conversion of voltage to OD600 in M9 minimal medium
IoTtalk
IoTtalk is a web-platform that can transmit signals between multiple devices, and can
help us build a remote-control system.
By registering our YUN board and building an application, users can monitor the status
of their E. Hybrid wherever they are.
Figure 12: IoT Talk Platform
Demonstration
Hardware Demonstration
Video 2: The test of our magnetic stirrer
Video 3: Live view during incubation process
Software Demonstration
Video 4: IoT Talk demonstration
Reference for 3D model
- Mini Micro Submersible Motor Pump: https://grabcad.com/library/mini-micro-submersible-motor-pump-1
- Small DC Hobby Motor: https://grabcad.com/library/small-dc-hobby-motor-1
- MiniBreadBoard: https://grabcad.com/library/minibreadboard-1
- Arduino YUN: https://grabcad.com/library/arduino-yun-1
- Bottle Boeco 500ml: https://grabcad.com/library/bottle-boeco-500ml-1
- Solar Panel A type: https://grabcad.com/library/solar-panel-a-type-1