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. The ketchup workflow ships with the cobot, the cell fixtures and the mock stations below — all wired up over ROS 2 so a behavior tree can run the workflow end to end.

Ketchup Beaker

Holds the raw paste before any solvent is added.

Sample

Comes with a stir bar and a solvent reservoir so the dissolution step can be triggered from the behavior tree.

Mock Dispenser

Pours a measured volume of solvent on cue.

Mock station

Exposes a simple ROS 2 topic for volume and flow rate, so the workflow can call it just like a real lab dispenser.

Mock Mixer

Stands in for the real lab mixer.

Mock station

Drives a heat flag and a dwell flag instead of physically stirring, but keeps the same control interface as the hardware mixer.

Centrifuge Mock

Clarifies the cloudy ketchup extract.

Mock station

Models a spin and settle cycle so the downstream filter sees a clean liquid, the same way it would after a real centrifuge run.

Syringe Filter

Final cleanup before the HPLC vial.

Lab tool

Pushes the extract through a fine filter into a clean receiving vessel, removing the last traces of tomato pulp.

HPLC Vial Tray

Empty vials in a numbered autosampler tray.

Output

Each slot has a fixed pose so the cobot can drop a capped, labeled vial into the right position for the HPLC run.

Cameras + AprilTags

Overhead and wrist cameras with markers.

Perception

AprilTag markers on the workcell table give the perception stack a stable reference frame for every pick and place.

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