Robotics Case Study

Ketchup HPLC Workflow in Simulation

HPLC sample prep is an eight step workflow. We built a Gazebo simulation of five of those steps for ketchup, which is the much harder usecase compared to the standard paracetamol example. The remaining three steps need tight tolerance hardware moves, so we left them out for now. Isaac Sim port comes next.

5 of 8 steps in Gazebo3 steps left for laterIsaac Sim port: in progress
See our Simulation Setup service

Simulation Preview

Gazebo Harmonic

A 6 axis cobot runs the ketchup sample prep workflow through dissolution, dilution, filtering, transfer and final autosampler placement.

A Gazebo simulation clip will be added here soon.

The Eight Step Workflow

Five steps run in Gazebo today. Three steps are honest about their limits and wait for hardware bring up. Each card explains the step and our status on it.

  1. 01
    Skipped

    Weighing

    Measure out a tiny, exact amount of ketchup before any solvent goes near it.

    Needs a real balance and fine fluid control. Too movement heavy for this round.

  2. 02
    Simulated

    Dissolution and Extraction

    Add a measured solvent so the target chemical, 5-HMF, leaves the pulp and moves into the liquid. With ketchup the result is a cloudy, pulpy mixture, not a clear solution.

  3. 03
    Simulated

    Dilution

    Weaken the extract by adding more solvent, so the HPLC machine can read it without saturating.

  4. 04
    Simulated

    Filtering

    Push the liquid through a fine filter to remove every last bit of tomato pulp before it reaches the instrument.

  5. 05
    Simulated

    Transfer to Vial

    Move the clear, filtered liquid into the small glass vial the autosampler will pick up.

  6. 06
    Skipped

    Capping

    Close the vial with a septum cap so the autosampler needle can pierce through it cleanly.

    Tight tolerance press and twist motion. Hard to model honestly in simulation right now.

  7. 07
    Skipped

    Labeling

    Print and apply a small label so the vial is traceable to the sample and the run.

    A printer plus precise sticker handling. Pushed to hardware bring up, not simulation.

  8. 08
    Simulated

    Placement in Autosampler

    Drop the capped, labeled vial into the correct numbered slot of the autosampler tray.

What Lives in the Scene

A clean simulation is mostly about getting the right objects into the world. For the ketchup workflow the scene carries the cobot, the cell fixtures and a set of mock stations that stand in for the real lab instruments.

The mock dispenser and mock mixer expose simple ROS 2 topics so we can drive them from a behavior tree and watch the workflow advance step by step.

  • Ketchup beaker, stir bar and solvent reservoir
  • Mock dispenser station that pours a measured solvent volume
  • Mock mixer station with a heat and dwell flag
  • Centrifuge mock for clarifying the cloudy extract
  • Syringe filter and a clean receiving vessel
  • Empty HPLC vial and the autosampler tray with numbered slots
  • Overhead camera, wrist camera, AprilTag markers and the workcell table

What Comes Next

The Gazebo build proves the workflow. Next we port the same scene to Isaac Sim, so the photoreal renderer can drive synthetic data for the vision steps and so larger training runs become possible. Hardware bring up of the three skipped steps follows after that.

Today

Gazebo workflow

Five workflow steps run end to end in Gazebo Harmonic with the mock dispenser and mixer.

Next

Isaac Sim port

Same scene, photoreal rendering, ready for synthetic data and larger policy runs.

Later

Hardware bring up

Weighing, capping and labeling move from skipped to live, with real lab instruments in the cell.

Want a simulation like this for your own workflow?

Our Simulation Setup service builds the full scene for your usecase. We modeled the ketchup workflow as a stress test for our own pipeline.

See the Simulation Setup service