@LukeWitt - Hamilton offers EasyPick, currently a STARline product, that enables automated colony picking right on deck of a STAR, using channels and tips for picking. I believe this will also be available for VANTAGE soon. It requires addition of an additional channel to the pipettor (outfitted with an integrated USB camera), as well as a controllable light table carrier on deck to provide backlight and contrast for imaging. EasyPick includes a VENUS driver, as well as additional software and machine vision for runtime analysis and processing of images.
Several petri dish styles are supported, and full configuration of colony analysis and picking criteria is enabled through the EasyPick software used by VENUS.
I have used EasyPick reliably for various picking applications over the years both in my customer days, and as part of the Hamilton applications team. Applications ranged from simple for simple to complex picking protocols. Depending on the type of labware used, very high throughput and substantial walkaway time can be achieved.
I always appreciated this being fully integrated into VENUS, as it gives full control of customizing features of the application per the protocol requirements right in the method/workflow, not to mention being able to apply barcode/sample tracking metadata to the picked colonies and their labware destinations, for robust traceability.
Here is an application note with some more information. Let me know if you have any questions!