Fig. 3

Different categories of liquid-handling robots. Automated liquid-handling systems range from highly sophisticated, such as Tecan FluentGX and Hamilton microlab STAR (Tier 1). To focused NGS sequencing systems, such as the Agilent Bravo and the PerkinElmer Sciclone NGSx iQ (Tier 2). Automated liquid handling can also come in the form of DIY workstations with open-source programming like the Opentrons OT-2 (Tier 3), or simply as pipetting assisting devices such as Gilson Pipetmax and Hudson SOLO (Tier 4), which serves to decrease manual pipetting without fully automating the s. Tier 3 and Tier 4 are often low-cost investments compared to Tier 1 and Tier 2. (All images depicted in this figure are our own or adapted from images with no copyright)