ABB Robots and Robotic Blood Draws: Needle to Lab

From 1943 Red Cross clinics to Vitestro's FDA-authorized Aletta blood-draw robot, and how ABB's mobile YuMi and GoFa handle the sample tubes afterwards.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/25/20261 min read

In January 1943, the photographer Conrad Poirier visited a Red Cross blood clinic in Lachine, Quebec. Donors lay side by side on tables while nurses found a vein by sight and touch and drew the blood by hand. Every donor needed a nurse's full attention.

Black and white photo of donors lying on tables while nurses draw blood

A Red Cross blood clinic in Lachine, Quebec, January 1943. Photo: Conrad Poirier / BAnQ via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The method barely changed after the war. Vacuum tubes replaced glass bottles and syringes, but a phlebotomist still ties the tourniquet, finds the vein and places the needle, as at the UCLA lab pictured. Each draw takes a trained person several minutes, and patients with difficult veins often get stuck more than once.

Gloved hand inserting a needle into a patient's arm resting on a padded chair arm

A blood draw by hand at the laboratory at UCLA Medical Plaza, 2025. Photo: Jengod / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

On August 19, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized Aletta, a machine from the Dutch company Vitestro that draws blood on its own. It picks a vein with near-infrared imaging and ultrasound, places the needle, swaps the tubes and puts on a bandage. In its Dutch trial the median draw took one minute and 49 seconds, and one phlebotomist can supervise three machines.

Four blood collection tubes with grey, purple and red caps in a rack

Blood collection tubes in a medical laboratory in Abuja, Nigeria. Photo: Frankincense Diala / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

ABB doesn't build blood-draw robots. Its part of the job starts once the tubes are full. At its healthcare research hub in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, ABB showed a concept mobile YuMi that drives around the lab, loads centrifuges, pipettes liquids and sorts test tubes.

White two-armed ABB YuMi robot on a mobile base in a bright hospital corridor

ABB's concept mobile YuMi lab robot in a hospital corridor at the Texas Medical Center, Houston. Photo: ABB

ABB's own analysis found that repetitive lab tasks like these could run up to 50% faster with automation, and a robot can keep going through the night. GoFa cobots now work at the hub too, and ABB has teamed up with METTLER TOLEDO to link its robots to lab instruments through the LabX software.

ABB YuMi robot on a mobile base reaching into a benchtop centrifuge while a lab worker stands behind

The mobile YuMi concept loading a laboratory centrifuge. Photo: ABB

I expect the two halves to meet. If a machine takes the sample and another robot carries and spins the tubes, one person could watch over several stations and results could come back sooner. And for anyone who dreads needles, a steady machine that finds the vein first time would be a welcome change.

Grey ABB GoFa cobot arm next to lab instruments in front of a wall reading ABB Robotics for healthcare

An ABB GoFa cobot at ABB's healthcare research hub. Photo: ABB

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