Autonomous robotics have become commonplace in the automotive and other industries, while their adoption within pharmaceutical facilities has been slow. There are underlying reasons for this, but current collaborations between industry and academia are actively addressing these, and its results herald the onset of the autonomous robotics era in this highly regulated industry. At University College Dublin (UCD) autonomous robots are being adapted for environmental monitoring (EM) activities within pharmaceutical facilities. The first step was to adapt the robots to allow them to easily and accurately expose and retrieve Petri dishes. While this first milestone has been achieved, some of the associated problems that need to be solved are now becoming apparent.
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