Using a distributed mini-computer network to automate a biochemical laboratory

Abstract

This research considers a distributed system constructed by networking small computers as an appropriate architecture for the automation of laboratories having an integrated function. The simplicity, inherent reliability, and flexibility of such an architecture can be realized only if the laboratory as a whole and its proposed final operational characteristics are considered from the very beginning. This desire to automate an integrated laboratory forces us to address not only the normal problems associated with instrument automation but also the goal oriented behavior of the laboratory. We have clarified these requirements by extending the accepted characterization of instrument automation and also by characterizing the levels of interaction appropriate for laboratories which must attain successive levels of integration. Because the distributed computer system is capable of supporting either integrated or independent activities and because computing power can be added incrementally as needed, the distributed system must be viewed as a design tool easily as important as those traditionally employed. We have access to the usual tools associated with software and hardware production—e.g. translators, editors, document generators—but also the facilities to utilize them simultaneously with production programs in a reliable and flexible manner.