Claims
- 1. A system for controlling the operation of a biological laboratory having a plurality of biological processing devices wherein at least some of the biological processing devices have interrelated operational dependence, the system comprising:
a control system that monitors and controls the operation of the plurality of biological processing devices, wherein the control system includes a standardized state logic having a plurality of standardized commands and an interrelationship database that correlates the interrelationship between a change of state of one of the biological processing devices to another of the biological processing devices, wherein the control system, in response to receiving a state change from a first biological processing device determines a desired state of a second biological processing device from the interrelationship database and sends a standardized state change command to the second biological device; a plurality of translation components associated with the plurality of biological processing devices wherein the plurality of translation components includes a customized instruction set that instructs the biological processing device to change from a first state to a second state in response to receiving the standardized state change command from the control system; wherein the plurality of translation components include at least one sample analyzer translation component for at least one sample analyzer wherein the at least one sample analyzer translation component receives standardized commands from the control system such that the at least one sample analyzer is instructed by the at least one sample analyzer translation component to obtain identification information about the biological sample.
- 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the standardized state diagram comprises a normal state and a fault state and wherein the standardized normal and fault states for a given devices represent functionally similar device-specific normal and fault states.
- 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the normal state of the standardized state diagram comprises a task state and a standby state.
- 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the normal state of the standardized state diagram further comprises a completed state.
- 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the control system, upon receiving the standardized completed state from the first device, determines the second device's state in response to the first device's state.
- 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the control system instructs the second device to go into the task state if it is in the standby state.
- 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes a sample storage device.
- 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes a sample transfer device.
- 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the sample transfer device comprises a robotics device.
- 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes a sample multiplexing device.
- 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the multiplexing device comprises a thermalcycler device.
- 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes the at least one sample analyzer.
- 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one sample analyzer comprises a mass spectrometer.
- 14. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one sample analyzer comprises a DNA sequencing device.
- 15. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one sample analyzer comprises an electrophoresis device.
- 16. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one sample analyzer comprises an array device.
- 17. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes a system monitoring device that monitors the operating conditions of the biological laboratory.
- 18. The system of claim 1, wherein the translation component for a given biological processing device is functionally located in a front end component of the given device.
- 19. The system of claim 1, wherein the translation component for a given biological processing device is functionally located in a translation repository accessible by the control system and the given biological processing device.
- 20. A method of controlling the operation of a plurality of biological processing devices adapted to facilitate biological assays, method comprising:
monitoring the states of the plurality of biological processing devices in a standardized format wherein the standardized states of the plurality of biological processing devices are obtained from device-specific states of the plurality of biological processing devices by transforming the device-specific states into the standardized format; determining a course of action representative of an interrelated functioning of the plurality of biological processing devices based at least in part on the monitored standardized states of the plurality of biological processing devices; and transmitting a set of standardized commands representative of the course of action to the plurality of biological processing devices, wherein the standardized commands are transformed into formats recognizable by the plurality of biological processing devices.
- 21. The method of claim 20, wherein monitoring the states of the plurality of biological processing devices comprises monitoring to see if the devices are in a standardized normal state or a standardized fault state.
- 22. The method of claim 21, wherein the normal state comprises a task state and a standby state.
- 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the normal state further comprises a completed state.
- 24. The method of claim 23, wherein determining a course of action comprises receiving the completed state of a first device and in response, determining that a second device's state is to be changed based on the first device's completed state.
- 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the second device's state is to be changed to the task state if it is in the standby state.
- 26. The method of claim 20, wherein transmitting the standardized commands to a given device comprises transforming the standardized commands to the device-specific commands at a front end component of the given device.
- 27. The method of claim 20, wherein-transmitting the standardized commands to a given device comprises transforming the standardized commands to the device-specific commands at a location that is not at given device.
- 28. A method of controlling the operation of a biological laboratory, method comprising:
associating a translation component with an existing instrument such that the translation component translates transmitted state signals and received instructions based at least in part on the state signals so that the instrument can be instructed to facilitate capture of identification information about a biological sample being assayed; maintaining a directory of information for each of the translation components such that a user interface can determine by accessing the directory which instruments are available for use to determine an assay process based at least in part on the state signals and the resulting instructions; and updating the directory whenever an instrument is either added or removed functionally from the biological laboratory such that the user interface can adjust the manner in which the state signals and instructions are implemented in the assay process based on the availability of the instruments in the biological laboratory.
- 29. The method of claim 28, wherein associating the translation component with the instrument comprises configuring a front end component of the instrument to perform the translation of the states and the instructions.
- 30. The method of claim 28, wherein associating the translation component with the instrument comprises configuring an algorithm not on the instrument to perform the translation of the states and the instructions.
- 31. The method of claim 28, wherein maintaining the directory comprises a listing of instruments available for use.
- 32. The method of claim 31, wherein the list of instruments comprises information about the instruments such as supported interface types, physical locations of the instruments, and identifiers that allow communication via a network.
- 33. The method of claim 32, wherein updating the directory comprises updating the list of instruments.
- 34. A system for controlling the operation of a biological laboratory having a plurality of biological processing devices, the system comprising:
a control system that monitors and controls the operation of the plurality of biological processing devices, wherein the control system includes a standardized state logic having a plurality of standardized commands and a database that correlates a change of state of a biological processing device to a corresponding command among the plurality of standardized commands; a plurality of translation components associated with the plurality of biological processing devices wherein the plurality of translation components includes a customized instruction set that instructs the biological processing device to change from a first state to a second state in response to receiving the standardized state change command from the control system; wherein the plurality of translation components include at least one sample analyzer translation component for at least one sample analyzer wherein the at least one sample analyzer translation component receives standardized commands from the control system such that the at least one sample analyzer is instructed by the at least one sample analyzer translation component to obtain identification information about the biological sample.
- 35. The system of claim 34, wherein the standardized state diagram comprises a normal state and a fault state and wherein the standardized normal and fault states for a given devices represent functionally similar device-specific normal and fault states.
- 36. The system of claim 35, wherein the normal state of the standardized state diagram comprises a task state and a standby state.
- 37. The system of claim 36, wherein the normal state of the standardized state diagram further comprises a completed state.
- 38. The system of claim 34, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes a sample storage device.
- 39. The system of claim 34, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes a sample transfer device.
- 40. The system of claim 39, wherein the sample transfer device comprises a robotics device.
- 41. The system of claim 34, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes a sample multiplexing device.
- 42. The system of claim 41, wherein the multiplexing device comprises a thermalcycler device.
- 43. The system of claim 34, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes the at least one sample analyzer.
- 44. The system of claim 43, wherein the at least one sample analyzer comprises a mass spectrometer.
- 45. The system of claim 43, wherein the at least one sample analyzer comprises a DNA sequencing device.
- 46. The system of claim 43, wherein the at least one sample analyzer comprises an electrophoresis device.
- 47. The system of claim 43, wherein the at least one sample analyzer comprises an array device.
- 48. The system of claim 34, wherein the plurality of biological processing devices includes a system monitoring device that monitors the operating conditions of the biological laboratory.
- 49. The system of claim 34, wherein the translation component for a given biological processing device is functionally located in a front end component of the given device.
- 50. The system of claim 34, wherein the translation component for a given biological processing device is functionally located in a translation repository accessible by the control system and the given biological processing device.
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] This U.S. patent application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/386296 entitled “Informatics System Architecture” filed Jun. 4, 2002 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/411574 entitled “Integration Instructions For Informatics System Architecture” filed Sep. 16, 2002 which are hereby incorporated by reference. Additionally, this application relates to the following co-pending applications filed on the same date which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety: attorney docket number ABIOS.044A entitled “System And Method For Open Control And Monitoring Of Biological Instruments“, attorney docket number ABIOS.045A entitled “System And Method For Discovery Of Biological Instruments “, and attorney docket number ABIOS.047A entitled “System And Method For Generating User Interfaces For Different Instrument Types“.
Provisional Applications (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60386296 |
Jun 2002 |
US |
|
60411574 |
Sep 2002 |
US |