LabAutomation 2006 - SLAS

Where Laboratory Technologies Emerge and Merge
9:30 am Wednesday, January 25, 2006 Track 5: Frontiers Beyond BioPharma Room: Sierra/Ventura
Wyndham Palm Springs Hotel
Stephen Martin
Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque, New Mexico
sjmarti@sandia.gov
Microanalytical Systems for Rapid, Automated Chemical Analysis
In recent years researchers have demonstrated that chemical analyses that once required benchtop analytical instruments can be
performed using miniaturized systems utilizing microfabricated analysis stages. Examples include gas chromatography, HPLC, and
electrochromatography. Several advantages are provided by systems using microfabricated components, including small size, increased
ruggedness, low power consumption, low sample and reagent volume requirements, and rapid analysis. This talk/poster will describe the
challenges that arise in making analytical systems using microfabricated components. It will also describe the performance characteristics
that can be obtained and the new applications that arise from the small size and portability these systems provide.
10:00 am Wednesday, January 25, 2006 Track 5: Frontiers Beyond BioPharma Room: Sierra/Ventura
Wyndham Palm Springs Hotel
Richard Belcinski
Co-Author
Microchip Biotechnologies, Inc.
Dublin, California
docrich@pacbell.net
Roger McIntosh
LabRAT.NET: A Dual-Layer Instrument Control and Automation Framework.
Standards-based approaches to automation typically use an open messaging format and a “simple” command set that describes the
actions of a wrapped instrument or software package. The command set reflects assumptions made about the underlying instrument state
transition model. Messages induce state transitions, and robustness is gained in part by having strict control over the conditions under
which each message is handled.
The difficulty with this approach is that a generic state model often cannot cover all automation contingencies in a clean manner, especially
when older instruments are addressed. The problem appears when two instruments are tightly coupled and operate within a single state
of their transition model. Developers wishing to utilize their chosen integration framework must make difficult choices in implementing
synchronization mechanisms that avoid state transitions.
To solve this problem, we propose a dual-layer, approach to building instrument wrappers. In the first layer, XML documents describe the
instrument state transition model without compromise. These documents describe a “method” interface by which sequences of messages
(and their input data) may be posted to the state machine to drive it. In the second layer, a higher-level generic message-handling state
machine exposes the method interface to the lab automation framework which is visible during service discovery. Thus developers
can preserve the uniqueness of their instruments without confronting the limitations of their automation framework. We describe our
implementation in the Laboratory Rapid Automation Toolkit (LabRAT) software package and illustrate its function and utility.
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