The Tecan SiLA2 SDK: A royalty-free, open-source framework to develop SiLA2 servers and clients.

Abstract

Many devices in a laboratory only have proprietary interfaces. Integrating them into an automation platform such as a Robotic Liquid Handler (RLH) thus usually requires upfront technical configuration and often dedicated software development. In this paper, we present the Tecan SiLA2 SDK, a BSD-3 licensed, royalty-free open-source framework on the.NET platform that makes it very easy for developers to implement the open SiLA2 standard: A developer only has to specify a dedicated automation interface, annotate it with informational constraints such as units or MIME-constraints and then the code required to expose implementations of this interface through SiLA2 can be generated. To validate the applicability and the savings in terms of integration efforts, we conducted multiple case studies. First, we analyze the integration of the Tecan Spark microplate reader into a lab execution system (LES), allowing us admittedly rough comparisons of device integrations using SiLA2 vs. the previous proprietary interface. Next, we analyze the integration of a RLH into the voice control software LabVoice, demonstrating the flexibility of integrations made possible through SiLA2. Lastly, we review the integration potential of liquid handling hardware into custom control softwares using a semi-automated exposure of the Tecan MAPlinx software platform through SiLA2.