Robotic Protocol Translation Across Labs With Equipment Substitution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automation in lab environments faces challenges due to non-standardized communication languages between operators and robots, lack of operator expertise, and varying interfaces among equipment and robots, leading to difficulties in protocol execution and increased latency.
Innovation Solution
A lab automation system that identifies replacement operations, equipment, and reagents to modify protocols, allowing for equivalent performance across different lab setups, and configures robots to perform these modified protocols in suitable labs, thereby standardizing communication and optimizing protocol execution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a lab automation system uses multiple different robots and equipment with varying interfaces, then the system can perform diverse protocols, but the communication complexity and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a standardized communication interface that acts as an intermediary layer between diverse robots/equipment and the lab automation system. This interface translates various equipment-specific protocols into a unified communication standard, enabling diverse hardware to interact without increasing system complexity or latency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs a universal communication framework that can handle multiple types of robots and equipment through a single standardized interface. This multi-functional approach allows the same interface to work with different hardware types, maintaining adaptability while reducing the need for multiple specialized connection methods.
2Ease of operation
If the lab automation system uses non-standardized communication languages between operators and robots, then each lab can use familiar terminology, but protocol parsing and execution become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The standardized communication interface serves as a mediator that translates operator-friendly, lab-specific terminology into a uniform protocol format that robots and equipment can reliably execute. This maintains ease of operation for human users while ensuring consistent and accurate protocol execution across all automated components.
3Adaptability or versatility
If operators are not versed in how to use the lab system for automation, then diverse scientific backgrounds are accommodated, but automation operation becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates automated configuration and protocol translation capabilities that reduce the need for operators to have specialized automation knowledge. The standardized interface automatically handles communication protocols and equipment-specific details, allowing operators with diverse scientific backgrounds to run protocols without becoming experts in automation systems.
4Productivity
If each robot and equipment has its own interface for communicating, then each device can be optimized for its specific function, but the lab system needs to determine how to communicate with each different interface, increasing latency
Solution Approach 1:
The standardized communication interface acts as a mediator that consolidates multiple device-specific communication paths into a single unified channel. This eliminates the need for the lab automation system to dynamically determine communication methods for each device, reducing decision-making overhead and communication latency while preserving device optimization through the translation layer.
Data Source
AI summary
A lab system accesses a first protocol for performance by a first robot in a first lab. The first protocol includes a set of steps, each associated with an operation, reagent, and equipment. For each of one or more steps, the lab system modifies the step by: (1) identifying one or more replacement operations that achieve an equivalent or substantially similar result as a performance of the operation, (2) identifying replacement equipment that operates substantially similarly to the equipment, and/or (3) identifying one or more replacement reagents that, when substituted for the reagent, do not substantially affect the performance of the step. The lab system generates a modified protocol by replacing one or more of the set of steps with the modified steps. The lab system selects a second lab including a second and configures the second robot to perform the modified protocol in the second lab.