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

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.

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