2008 ALA Survey on Laboratory Automation

Managing laboratory automation

This paper discusses the process of managing automated systems through their life cycles within the quality-control (QC) laboratory environment. The focus is on the process of directing and managing the evolving automation of a laboratory; system examples are given. The author shows how both task and data systems have evolved, and how they interrelate. A BIG picture, or continuum view, is prese...

Remote Laboratory for Industrial Automation

In this paper we present a remotely accessed experiment on industrial automation. Using this remote access, students may verify the correctness of their previous work and increase the productivity of laboratory classes. The experiment provides a web page for interfacing with a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) which controls an electro-pneumatic process. Students may remotely download the pro...

Decentralized management of laboratory automation

It is generally believed that successful robot users have dedicated centralized robotic groups. While such a generalization holds some merit historically, the availability of newer more user-friendly robots and workstations in recent years and a more computer-literate work force today is changing the way that automation can be managed. Decentralization recognizes robots and workstations as addi...

A comprehensive laboratory automation system

2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 19 - 13 May 2008

In this paper a ring of calibrated and synchronized cameras is used for achieving robot and obstacle localization inside a common observed area. To avoid complex appearance matching derived from the wide-baseline arrangement of cameras, a metric occupancy grid is obtained by intersection of silhouettes projected onto the floor. A particle filter is proposed for tracking multiple objects by usin...