Zymark Corporation

William J Buote

Burleigh M Hutchins

John S Roe

Barry T Hixon

Randall B Rubinstein

Susan M Wagner

Lawrence J Finn

Warren R Vollinger

Anne M Sullivan

A dissolution testing system including a base; a plurality of vessels mounted on the base; an agitation mechanism for agitating a liquid content of the vessels; and a head supported above each of the vessels and operable to automatically inject a liquid media into the vessel.

Automatic dissolution testing system

A method of operating liquid chromatography apparatus. The method includes the steps of determining a given rate of liquid flow desired from a piston pump to the column; establishing for the piston a predetermined stroke length and rate of reciprocation for providing the given rate of liquid flow; determining for each cycle of the pump a desired liquid volume that would be delivered to the column by the pump if producing the given rate of liquid flow; ascertaining for each cycle of the pump the actual liquid volume delivered thereby to the column; determining for a predetermined operating period of the pump the total desired liquid volume that would have been delivered to the column by the pump if producing the given rate of liquid flow during each cycle of the predetermined operating period; and determining the total actual liquid volume delivered to said column by said pump during all cycles of said predetermined operating period. After comparing the total desired liquid volume with the total actual liquid volume one or more subsequent piston cycles are produced that provide a compensating liquid flow rate different than the given rate of liquid flow in response to a determination during the comparing step that a difference exists between the total actual liquid volume and the total desired liquid volume. The compensating rates of liquid flow correct pumping cycle errors that produce incorrect liquid volume flow.

Method for providing constant flow in liquid chromatography system

An angular position measurement system including a rotatable mechanism, a potentiometer coupled to the rotatable mechanism and adapted to produce a first output signal indicative of the angular position thereof; a graduated element retaining a plurality of annularly distributed graduations representing different angular positions of the rotatable mechanism, and a detector for producing second output signals in response to alignment thereof with any of the graduations. Also included is a drive for producing relative movement between the graduated element and the detector in response to rotation of the rotatable mechanism so as to render the second output signal indicative of an angular position of the rotatable mechanism and a comparator for comparing the angular positions indicated by the first and second output signals.

Angular position measurement apparatus

A robot system having various work stations and control means which allows recognition of the identity, position and geometry of a plurality of the work stations and assures movement of a robot manipulator among the work stations without its colliding with them even if new work stations are substituted for original work stations or if work stations of substantially different geometry are moved from one position to another. In a particularly advantageous aspect of the invention, the control means of the robot system derives its operating and clearing procedures from information fed to it from intelligence, or code, that is specifically associated with each of the work stations. This arrangement allows rapid set up of a laboratory robot to perform any of a large number of combinations of events. It also makes it practical to provide a robotic system to the customer which can be practically pre-programmed to 'hand' sample-associated data from work station to work station, thereby effectively tracking such sample parameters as volume and mass.

Quickly reconfigurable robotic system

In a robotic system for efficient serialization of processing a number of samples by a robotic manipulator through an identical sequence of processing steps with a plurality of the samples being processed through the sequence at a given time, such that they must share the services of the manipulator, the improvement wherein a computer control means 92 operates a schedule-control feature which forms means both

Computerized robot control system with scheduling feature

Apparatus constructed such that it may control various other equipment for the performance of various work tasks, even other equipment yet to be designed for work tasks yet to be designed. The improvement in the apparatus feature a call-back control procedure which is activatable from device intelligence to ensure that a specific robotic device can be 'called-back', i.e. reactivated, to perform some specific action without the necessity of there being a code entry in the sequence intelligence of the central computer system enabling the specific action. The apparatus comprises a central computer control means comprising (1) a dictionary storage means for tagging and storing command-specific parameters for a specific work tasks and that specific robot module to which each of the parameters belongs and (2) sequencing means to schedule said work-tasks for a plurality of said modules. The module also can be activated for the task without use of the sequencing means, e.g. by having the module request one of its own dictionary entries.

Self-configuring computerized robot control system with call-back feature

Apparatus constructed such that it may control various other equipment for the performance of various work tasks, even other equipment yet to be designed for work tasks yet to be designed. The apparatus comprises a central computer control means comprising (1) a dictionary storage means for tagging and storing command-specific parameters for a specific work tasks and that specific robot module to which each of the parameters belongs and (2) sequencing means to schedule said work-tasks for a plurality of said modules. The module also can be activated for the task without use of the sequencing means, e.g. by having the module request one of its own dictionary entries.

Self-configuring computerized robot control system

A self-configuring robotic system and method are disclosed. The system employs a computer having a central processing unit and an operating system containing at least a nucleus, a sequence reprogrammer and task support services. A robotic device and at least one defined task performing device, which may be another robotic device, are used in the system. Each device has a corresponding module that is electrically connected to the device and provides all of the intelligence for the particular device. Each module also provides a control block flag and a starting offset for the computer. The modules are electrically connected to the computer through a plurality of physically separable electrical connections so that all of the intelligence for the devices is on the device side of the associated physically separable electrical connections.

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Natick, MA, United States of America

William J Buote