Solving Laboratory Automation Problems by Using an Object-Oriented Framework Based on Business Objects

Abstract

INTRODUCTION A relevant standard adoption for Laboratory Automation Control is currently developed within an OMG (Object Management Group) to improve the quality and utility of software and information systems used in Life Sciences Research by using the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and the Object Management Architecture (OMA). The scope of this approach covers many aspects related to life sciences research, including genomics, bioinformatics, genetics, structural biology or computational molecular biology. An emerging new industry must focus on high end information technology solution to enable high quality process control, data acquistion, data feed forward and feed backward for process optimizaiton. The developed software must conform to existing standards such as GLP, GMP, GAMP, FDA, ISO9000 etc.. Many of the expected advantages are already foreseeable. The report encourages other companies to make the paradigm shift to the new technologies described herein. An existing laboratory production system requires different processing ways and material handling control systems. In order to have a competitive advantage in the strongly contested laboratory automation market some automation operations (“Business Objects”) need highly labor-configurated or even proprietarily implemented information technology (IT) solutions. The suggested approach is a state of the art IT architecture with a forward-looking, easy expandable framework. This framework should be able to manage nowadays company-internal IT projects, fulfilling both a modern IT archtitecture with prospects for the future and projects which are visible at a glance. Such a framework will guarantee the best balance between the integration effort of buyable and self developed (“high end”) IT solutions.