Computing/Robotics

Robotics

Various biology tasks can be handled by liquid-handling or tray-handling robots. The following robotic systems are used in some labs:

• Tecan: uses a graphical user interface called Gemini and/or EVOware to create scripts which are called Gemini Scripts (*.gem files). The Gemini application runs on Microsoft Windows, however it also provides a method for external applications to send text-string robot commands to control all aspects of the robot. The Gemini application can also call external programs while running a script.

• Biomek: Uses a graphical user interface to create scripts. The script language is called Bioscript and runs based on TCL/Tk.

(Please add others to this list)

Internet Resources for This Topic

• Jonathan Cline has created some scripts in Perl which command the Tecan robot directly.
• There is a Yahoo! Groups mailing list called TecanProgramming which has various Tecan discussion, and some Visual Basic example software for controlling the robot directly.
• There is a Yahoo! Groups mailing list called lrig-discussion for "Laboratory Robotics and Automation".
• There is a large industry organisation site at http://www.labautomation.org