1. Introduction to Mobile Laboratories
Mobile laboratories can be described as purpose-oriented instruments that allow for conducting scientific and technical research and experimental activities in various fields, both indoors and in outdoor field conditions. Mobile laboratories are vehicles and containers that can transport scientific facilities and operating equipment, showing high flexibility and mobility. The development of mobile laboratories is a promising trend in light of the concentration on research and testing operations, as well as a focus on potential tapping. The mobile laboratory offers a range of benefits, including fast adjustment to new operating conditions, flexible configuration, research and testing systems, field site operations, and substantive data collection and processing on-site. These capabilities are particularly important for enhancing operational efficiency and effectiveness. For example, it is possible to conduct environmental monitoring and sample analysis anywhere, in-situ engineering research, education support, and on-site health and safety research and accident response. This principle-based approach is applied not only in the educational field but also in the industrial, private, and public spheres.
The results of field research equip researchers, developers, and innovators with useful knowledge in real operating conditions. It leads to an updated concept of the laboratory designed as a specialized vehicle, a mobile laboratory, to facilitate and fulfill wide research and development project purposes. Currently, two types of innovative products are being developed: the unmanned mobile laboratory designed for testing heavy equipment and the mobile nanotechnology sample, which is due to be completed by 2023. The development is conducted in compliance with relevant framework projects.
1.1. Definition and Purpose
Mobile laboratories are portable, on-site facilities that offer cutting-edge equipment, tools, and materials for scientific and technological endeavors in remote, rural, or underserved locations. Hence, mobile labs can be considered experimental stations “on wheels” that enable researchers to carry out experiments, collect and analyze data, and generate scientific knowledge or applications directly in the field. Many different types of mobile laboratories exist. Most are technically fitted on specific vehicle types that match the desired level of accessibility and the operational requirements. The sectors that use these labs are equally diverse, ranging from healthcare and education to environmental science and exploration. The main intention behind mobile laboratories is, however, to bring cutting-edge knowledge and experiences and their applications to diverse points of operation, service, and application levels.
Although equipped with advanced facilities, mobile laboratories are introduced in such a way that they can also be understood as research or service delivery platforms whose primary function is to “take resources to places they do not normally exist.” By way of their being “mobile,” one of the key capabilities of the mobile laboratories is their ability to increase spatial access when it comes to scientific knowledge or services resulting from the reorganizations of the “place and mobility” configurations. Providing for multiple research services on multiple levels, mobile labs are a “whole system” having multiple functions and operations available on wheels. Overall, mobile labs facilitate the following: integrated product and service, CI testing and verification, scalable units, jumping from small scale to large scale applications, prescriptions and recommendations based on analysis and integrated operations.
1.2. Benefits and Applications
Mobile laboratories enable research work to be carried out on-site. This has a number of advantages over having to transport samples to a fixed laboratory before an investigation can be carried out on them. For a start, work can begin as soon as samples arrive. This is important for decisions that depend on the results of tests that can impact public safety or where shipping waste may be illegal, dangerous, or not an option for logistical or cost reasons. Secondly, by taking instruments and researchers to the problem, a great deal of what is measured can be taken directly from the environment. Samples are processed on-site rather than being transported away and analyzed in convenient sheltered conditions. A laboratory on wheels, an emergency response unit, can be taken to where its work is in demand, for example, to forest fires where timely analysis of atmospheric composition can contribute to decisions about combating the fire or warning the public. Applications range from performing healthcare diagnostics or environmental assessments in remote locations to demonstrating mobile laboratory services in tertiary education courses. The design of the mobile units is flexible and can be customized according to their intended use. They are often offered within the framework of wider commercial laboratory design and build projects. Their use is strongly linked to a number of sectors, such as environmental, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, healthcare, water and sewage, clinical chemistry, agriculture and veterinary science, and construction. The increasing range of uses to which they are now put is evidence of the growing importance of these laboratories in professional work. It is estimated that there are 150 mobile laboratories operating within the United States.
2. ICU Automotive: Pioneers in Mobile Laboratory Manufacturing
ICU Automotive has been making mobile laboratories practically since the moment the idea of such equipment appeared in the world. At the moment, there are many more such mobile units, but it was our company that became a pioneer in this area. The key business principle of ICU Automotive that distinguishes it from its competitors is the constant process of development and improvement. The founder of the company is a person who has been serving in special structures, and he knows what special customers need. This trait helped the creation of solutions such as a laboratory, mobile veterinary clinics, etc., which are absolutely not standard for this equipment.
Over the history of our company, it is obvious that the quality and innovation of our products are directly proportional to our success, as a result of which we are interested in fruitful cooperation from all over the world. Benefits of cooperation with ICU Automotive include the following: the customized nature of all products (we listen to the client’s needs and implement them in production work), and the use of exclusively European components and imported expensive equipment, only certified bodies. The use of new technologies and continuous movement forward to the “future of laboratory” is the main vector of our company’s development. Drawing information technology companies to write software for mobile laboratories and working with them to finalize software has allowed us to get our finger on the pulse of the market and develop the “future” of laboratories that no one else offers. All prototypes have been tested in search of maximum wear resistance and practicality. The products are in high demand, and investment in such units in the form of their purchase and modernization will pay off with a reduced error rate and greater productivity in the customer’s field.
2.1. Company Overview
ICU Automation was established in Eindhoven in 2002 and is engaged in the development, production, and sales of mobile laboratories in the broadest sense of the word. Having unraveled the unsatisfactory state of the art regarding mobile laboratory manufacturing, we also began building various mobile laboratories on European territory, with locations in Eupen, Belgium; Honesdale, Pennsylvania, USA; and Press, Lancashire, in the United Kingdom. On 1 November 2022, the company changed its designation to ICU Automotive B.V. Ronald Driessen and Prashant Tomar became engaged in the company and became co-entrepreneurs with a majority of the shares for years to come. ICU Automotive was established with the credo to boldly go where nobody has gone before. As such, proving a once very close partner wrong, we built the first-ever mobile high-standard Class C cleanroom.
In the years that followed, our list of groundbreaking patents and the development of the HHSQ products, Continuous Ambient Condition Test Lanes, testing each taken sample with all parameters that are generally required, kept piling up. Amazingly, even an approval was obtained for the Cannabis Quality Supervised Ambience Testing Laboratory. Our presentation addresses the history of the company and also states where we are today. With every product we have made and every service we deliver, we provide top quality, as we promise. We never sit in our comfortable ivory tower; we want to experience the feel of the marketplace ourselves. We have been visiting market leaders in this industry, and we have the luxury of being international. We have good market shares both in small economies and big economies. We collaborate and prefer to make you one of our friends; we prefer to call our customers friends. We engage in research and development constantly; it is not unusual for us to have long sessions when it comes to brainstorming for new solutions and innovations. In detail, we walk the pathway of being proud dreamers; 100% innovation is our middle name. For a reasonable price, you can rent but also buy. We respect all our co-workers.
2.2. Key Technologies and Innovations
2.2.1. Introduction Naturally, we cannot describe all innovations, but we will concentrate on those that may be of interest to the reader as a researcher or architect working in the area of mobile labs and to future users to help them define their needs. Description of Innovations Advanced design, integrating the knowledge and properties of main subsystems, creates the functionality as well as safety and offers well-shaped vehicles as the nuts and bolts of scientific operation in the mobile lab. It includes the exterior (shape and size, color) of the vehicles and their harmonization with the surrounding environment, marker lights, internal arrangement of chambers, placement of windows and access doors, integrated furniture, safety, interior and exterior lighting, new driving equipment such as side and rear cameras, and connection to the vehicle CAN bus for monitoring the speed, battery status, gas level in the LPG bottles, ambient temperature, and doors open/closed alarm, etc. The second part is special equipment: advanced scientific and maintenance equipment, which is the main value of a mobile lab, tantalizes scientists for research in out-of-lab conditions and in natural conditions. This new equipment was not available ten years ago during our first mobile lab construction. Given the scale of molecular and microbiological research conducted at that time in the area of ‘omics’, early warning systems and biosecurity, as well as rich investigation capability equipment for medical and veterinary diagnostics, we were forced to design and produce a whole set of appliances. This is how the first real-time LAMP test for C- and N-genes from Bacillus anthracis hosted in a mobile lab carrier appeared. These trends in the development of new solutions continue today, as we are creating LabBusses. Let’s then take a closer look at the implemented construction solutions and equipment.
3. Design Considerations for Mobile Laboratories
Mobile laboratories are fundamentally unlike any standard brick-and-mortar laboratory. By its very nature, a mobile laboratory must include a wide variety of special considerations due to the size restrictions inherent in its form factor. Whether converting a surplus step-van or a cutting-edge custom vehicle designed from the ground up to be a lab, one must seriously consider space utilization in every decision initially made. Ergonomic considerations are critical to maximize equipment and personnel schedules for optimal lab workflows. When planning the layout, thought for both expected laboratory protocols and possibilities is necessary to ensure that staff operate within optimal physical parameters – safety via largely accident-proof placement and systems layout; comfort via both proper seating and lighting accommodations; and equipment budgetary necessity balancing.
Beyond people and processes, continued satisfactory operation is very much dependent upon the accurate placement of equipment and material goods within the lab. Permanent damage to equipment or vehicles can occur as fluid routers malfunction or drop into electrical sockets. Protecting your equipment protects your production schedule and livelihood. Safe driving of a vehicle loaded with a mobile laboratory for sampling hazardous materials is a challenge, solvable through anti-roll bars and drop stabilization engineering. Ergonomics and human factors and dynamics such as adjustability, dynamic lift rate, and work-to-rest ratio adjustments can help define the most efficient workspace and can ‘make or break’ the personnel driving or performing poorly, even rendering the entire lab provision itself dangerously unusable from malfeasance. In such a scenario, the lab would be driving without a pilot. Mobile labs, already dealing with multiple regulatory agencies, need to add grocery store ADA level accommodations to our list of features to be secondarily included in CNC-driven cabinetry. Safe driving of a vehicle loaded with a mobile laboratory is also a large argument for lowering the center of gravity and raising the roof, versus top-heavy high center of gravity vehicles. As stated on day one in academia: safety first, argue later. So, on day one, one might add: safety in design first. Ergonomics can also drive the overall vehicle dimensions and weight configurations. There is no single solution or set of solutions to these challenges; like all aspects of engineering, options must be weighed and judgments made.
A note about regulations and the law: In the United States, regulations are not prescriptive; they are prohibitive. Keep that in mind when reading the text of compliance or adherence. Equipment is not compliant with; it is permitted access. Industry guidelines and standards often provide more guided compliance to rules, but regulations do not discuss methodologies of exposure levels or accident prevention; they generally set a line where injury rates are statistically absent, stating that it is still possible. Ergonomics embodies all these problems in one hand-in-hand sideshow. Developing a standard is taking an ergonomically unpopular option to make the world safe from accidents; their statistics can disagree. It’s the principle of a bird he flew asserted from a lawyer’s practice: never heard of a bird that went to law school. Call it never saw Mr. Murphy get into law school. What is complied with is not necessarily ergonomic, and only with working adjustable fixtures is the success of a unit or specification assumed. It doesn’t mean it is not extremely personally tragic, of course. Ergonomics and rules never escape regulations; we can only alliterate them in most of their embodiments and help you construct a vehicle or modify the vehicle you have.
3.1. Space Utilization and Layout
Organizational structure and layout primarily depend on the space constraints of the unit. Space allocation on situational bases of how long a task will be worked on, how many personnel would be needed to complete the task in a comfortable manner, how many fixtures will be used, and the size of the personnel’s tools and supplies needed for that type of job is a concern when designing a successful layout. Engineers and designers calculate all of the above and decide how each is to be planned. If a task is done for short durations of time, maybe only one data retrieval, then only one workstation for all personnel allocated to that job will be needed, saving space for a decision on the layout.
Modular workbench design can be utilized and be a successful means of decreasing the space needed for workbenches. One specific design showed sliding drawers that could slide back into the workbench when not in use to work on larger sections, which saved on space, and included a trash can on the backside of the workbench to preserve room to move for personnel permitted for certain mobile testing in a particular field. Organizing the location of kit preparation to be more towards the entrance of the auxiliary field showed reduced responses from workers indicating how they would not want to make the long walk. The modification of the kit design so the bottom portion of the kit can open completely would allow the worker to lay the kit flat and place the contents inside it with more room. To further aid in correct high-preparation kit storage, a second alternative of the same rack with a slight modification of lowering the height of the bottom rack by 5 inches would maintain the grace for mobility and the important proper space comparisons.
In recent years, much field research has been undertaken with the analytic goal of computational optimization in cellular layout. Staff and materials can be utilized in an effective manner that takes into account the types of jobs in a lab. In a laboratory, limited space can pose a difficulty in the way space is to be considered in the layout. Ergonomically, the layout of mobile testing would require a more rotational move from the entering of the sample to traveling to the stations and tools needed. In the case study, researchers can enter the field of investigation and receive the basic information and possible organizational plan. The investigators need only to make a site inspection of the mobile testing to place in a preliminary layout and use the information received from the sites to make a final layout. All in all, layout is tricky. Organizational structure and layout primarily depend on the space constraints of the unit.
3.2. Ergonomics and Safety Features Mobile Laboratories
The design of user-friendly mobile laboratories does not only cover the lab equipment but also the layout of the laboratory and the surrounding infrastructure of a response unit. The word ergonomics comes from the Greek meaning work, and natural respectively. Thus, ergonomics is the science of fitting the workplace to the user’s needs. It is important to design mobile laboratories in a way that they are comfortable for the lab staff to work in. A convenient dashboard will improve a driver’s performance, just as convenient seating in the storage area will improve the logistics performance for the vehicle and the carrying of material. Workers who can work in a comfortable environment are less likely to suffer from accidents and injuries.
To improve safety in mobile laboratories, secure storage is a safe way of transporting sample material and reagents. The design of emergency exits on mobile laboratories needs to be simple and vary depending on the size and use of the vehicle. The other important side of ergonomics is the layout of mobile laboratories. Emergency laboratory containers and vehicles should come with non-slip surfaces at entrances and ramps. All equipment in a mobile laboratory should be arranged in line with health and safety codes for laboratory equipment. The important part of a mobile laboratory design is to allow staff to maneuver and to change the capacity of equipment depending on the amount of staff available. The benching and storage areas should be designed for maximum staff output. It is important to provide adjustable workstations to cater to the staff’s needs. Lab directors and procurement staff should all think about this side of laboratory procurement. It is important in any lab to think about current best practices in the area and the latest industry advice on lab layouts.
4. Case Studies of Mobile Laboratory Applications Mobile Laboratories
Case Study
A consultant employed by the project partner is probably working alongside project partner. According to the definition being used, a case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context that has few boundaries and employs mixed methods of data collection. In the material collected so far, twelve mobile laboratories with wide-ranging applications were presented and used to highlight the enduring benefits of mobile laboratories—the impetus behind the ‘mobile’ phase of a competition and its resulting funding award. The specific profiled uses of mobile laboratories indicate growing demand from the following sectors:
(1) Healthcare—tackling hospital waiting times following outbreaks; rapid testing and diagnosis in remote areas; staffed by foreign aid doctors in humanitarian crises. (2) Disease monitoring—initial assessment teams in protective suits at crime scenes or contamination incidents. (3) Environmental monitoring—sniffing out pollution; ensuring water quality around underwater turbines; providing instant information following leaks. (4) Animal (and fisheries) welfare—researchers use innovative mobile laboratories as models for research films; special-purpose mobile laboratories can be used to diagnose diseases and check fish stocks. (5) Teaching/research/education—a fleet of mobile laboratories takes science into schools, festivals, shopping centers, and science parks; a drive to inspire a new generation of research stars. (6) Support purposes—roll on: support research; set up in military environments with inbuilt additional security.
4.1. Healthcare and Medical Research Mobile Laboratories
Since most of the first mobile labs were designed for use in the healthcare sector, it is not surprising that the application category with the second-largest percentage of respondents interested is the healthcare and medical research sector. Over the past two decades, mobile labs have transformed the delivery of healthcare. Integrated into buses, trailers, shipping containers, modular buildings, and their own custom-designed vehicles, mobile labs are now a regular sight at hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and large industrial sites in most developed countries. Early use focused on providing clinical support services and community outreach, but today’s mobile laboratories now deliver lab work on wheels to the consumer. Many local healthcare authorities, hospitals, and private labs now have mobile labs at their disposal.
Doctors and scientists rank among the other subset of healthcare delivery professions that have been revolutionized by mobile laboratories. For example, public health physicians now take clinical pathology services to the home as well as the scene of death investigations. Veterinarians set up mobile laboratories at abattoirs and live animal markets. Pharmaceutical companies field mobile laboratories to conduct clinical trials spanning nationwide populations. This fine grain of healthcare delivery is forced on the policymakers during every catastrophe from pandemics and bioterrorist attacks to plane crashes, from prison riots to the physical and psychological drought. Once the disaster is over, it is just a short step back in time to conducting Band-Aid medicine in remote clinics in the bush, desert, or outback, after that iodine tablet is delivered from the city office end of the telepath once the phone lines have reached the Montague and Capulet parts of the telegraph at the Swiss and US Post Offices.
4.2. Environmental Monitoring
Environmental observation has always been a task of ecology. Studying ecosystem structures, functions, and changes is an essential means of its governance. Mobile laboratories have been shown to be equal to this topic by many scientists in their various habitat assessments around the world conducted in ecosystems. Unlike conventional laboratory analyses, ecological applications of mobile labs usually place the highest premium on the time between sample collection and results interpretation; in fact, many applications have the need for mobile labs to report back environmental assessments in real time. These needs often appear most acute when change management actions are considered or needed.
Mobile laboratories are commonly deployed to perform real-time air quality monitoring and assess pollution levels in and outside of work zones associated with road construction and agricultural fires. Studies on the ecological reactions of wildfires and prescribed burning, natural and man-caused disasters, spills, and numerous air contamination and management issues have all used mobile labs. They have also been employed for water contamination, where there are often pressing questions from both government and the public to assess the biological consequences of large-scale water releases or to quickly evaluate water and in situ toxicity data when considering an ecological effects-based site-specific assessment. The rapid in-the-field analysis made available by a mobile lab has been shown to provide policymakers with new insights into complex environmental processes and a better understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics at play. In the end, this has been illustrated to lead to a paradigm shift in the way environmental research is conducted and how framework policies concerning ecosystems are actually used. Some examples of the successful ecological deployments of mobile labs are cited in the following sections. Some shortcomings are discussed here too, where the overall concept has been the development of novel solutions to such obstacles.
5. Future Trends and Innovations in Mobile Laboratory Technology
The market for mobile or field laboratories is rapidly growing. Their design is often based on different standards and requirements than building-based laboratories, considering the lower cost of analysis, tests, and surveys. The development and innovation in this field move continuously and are triggered by improvements in technology. In the following paragraphs, a general view of the most important characteristics and expectations that are going to be imposed on mobile laboratory technology is given.
A variety of new technologies will undoubtedly influence future mobile laboratory designs, including the improving quality and connectivity in field networks, the deployment of sensors with increased capability into the field, increased GPS-based navigation accuracy, and movement between network nodes being less constrained in speed and telemetry. Moreover, a future ‘smart’ field/lab setting may be a ‘user-defined system for in-network interactions and automated meteorology’, where ‘smart’ features such as automation, decision making, monitoring, and control will be attributes of the network and instruments in place, rather than solely residing within the equipment of the mobile lab. Trends indicate a growing demand for environmentally friendly solutions and for systems that are as energy efficient as possible. It is therefore anticipated that portable, field-deployable systems available in the future will be designed to be more compact, lighter, and robust. Moreover, we anticipate future mobile laboratories will be designed around the proliferation of ‘unmanned’ technologies, utilizing platforms for free-running geochemical and/or biological surveys through to field laboratories with only intermittent onsite human presence.
However, the availability and ever-decreasing cost of highly sophisticated analytical equipment has built a market for rapid screening and ever-more sensitive instrumentation in the field. We therefore expect the mobile laboratory to continue to operate alongside a range of sophisticated, automated field-deployable instruments designed to obtain complementary chemical and biological measurements in the field. Over the last decade, significant research has been devoted to the development and application of robots and AI systems in mobile laboratories. The research regarding robots has tackled a wide range of possible hardware designs, ranging from mechatronic machines to more recent discussions and applications in swarm robotics with connected robots and microfluidic chips. The discussion also includes a dynamic classification of AI for robots by identifying options for improving efficiency, robustness, safety, and acceptable risk. Principles of a coupled neural network represent a step towards a human systematic review. Antagonistic neural networks and robust learning designs are also surveyed as a new way to process systematic inputs in drones. A review of machine learning algorithms is also proposed. The possibility of adapting aircraft to cluster robotics applications is considered. Artificial intelligence is expected to enhance the capabilities of robots by increasing their adaptability in complex environments.
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