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Here we present two robotic sample changers integrated into the experimental stations for the macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines AMX and FMX, and the biological small-angle scattering (bioSAXS) beamline LiX. They enable fully automated unattended data collection and remote access to the beamlines. The system designs incorporate high-throughput, versatility, high-capacity, resource sharing and robustness. All systems are centered around a six-axis industrial robotic arm coupled with a force torque sensor and in-house end effectors (grippers). They have the same software architecture and the facility standard EPICS-based BEAST alarm system. The MX system is compatible with SPINE bases and Unipucks. It comprises a liquid nitro­gen dewar holding 384 samples (24 Unipucks) and a stay-cold gripper, and utilizes machine vision software to track the sample during operations and to calculate the final mount position on the goniometer. The bioSAXS system has an in-house engineered sample storage unit that can hold up to 360 samples (20 sample holders) which keeps samples at a user-set temperature (277 K to 300 K). The MX systems were deployed in early 2017 and the bioSAXS system in early 2019.

Supporting information

mp4

Moving Picture Experts Group (MP4) video file https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577521007578/rv5151sup1.mp4
BioSAXS robot

mp4

Moving Picture Experts Group (MP4) video file https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577521007578/rv5151sup2.mp4
General puck mount

mp4

Moving Picture Experts Group (MP4) video file https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577521007578/rv5151sup3.mp4
MX robot

pdf

Portable Document Format (PDF) file https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577521007578/rv5151sup4.pdf
Figure S1


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