Scheduler with 3D simulation

Schedulers
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following is the software system we developed for laboratory automation with scheduler and 3D simulation. How do you think about it? Any advice is appreciated

  • the programming inside it is a scratch like visual programming, and the visual script supports nearly all code syntax, from variable, array, loop, logic, function, module, OOP. And you can use COM/ActiveX/.Net/dll directly in the visual script.
  • 3D simulation can simulate movement and operation of robot arm (scara, industrial, collaborative) with different hand and kinds of instruments. With 3D simulation we can setup our system of lab automation virtually and get all the details of the system. Finally we can use more arms and instruments in the automation systems
  • the visual programming can easily define multiple assays, and the system can support mulitiple experiments
  • We can also use low-level scheduler function in visual script, and together with extending ability of visual script we can even control more devices without driver development
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The video isn’t playing for me, anyway to link to the file or some other host? Sounds pretty interesting!

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I upload the video to youtube and github, and you can click the link to see it.

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Interesting! I always thought that a Gazebo-like environment specialized for lab automation could lower the barrier dramatically to play around with different lab setups - what’s your plan with the software?

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That’s really cool, awesome stuff.

I really like the Nvidia Omniverse Isaac Sim robot simulation environment (never used it but I’ve seen videos). To break that down a bit, Nvidia is the company, Omniverse is a massive project from Nvidia to create collaborative 3D design and modeling environments. Isaac Sim is the robotics simulation framework within that.

https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/isaacsim/latest/overview.html

Here is a reinforcement learning library created for Isaac Sim

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3D visualization & simulation is only a CPQ (configuration, price, quotation) tool, and there are many vendors. For lab automation, 3D simulation maybe can bring more features like digital twin. I think that our visual programming can simplify multiple assay development, for works can be done by only visual code without any script (js, vb, c#).

We had deployed this scheduler & 3D simulation in one customer, and the system ran heavily and smoothly for one year.

lab automation system with scheduler & 3D simulation
lab automation system with scheduler & 3D simulation1705×1279 236 KB

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3D simulation was very popular for industrial automation, and there were many tools and products. But currently there is no tool for lab automation. We only implemented very basic simulation for lab automation, but it can enable us to setup and run a system or laboratory virtually, and also it can give us many details.

Please use youtube if you can not see the video

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This is absolutely incredible! Is this open source? I’d love to see the scratch portion of this library. Been wanting to try that for a LONG time.

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This tool consists four part:

  • Visual programming environment like blockly and scratch
  • Dynamic scheduler engine
  • 3D visualization and simulation
  • Workflow for laboratory automation

Part of visual programming was open source 4 years ago, you can find it at github. But for two years there were no contribution, only many quesitions and requests for new feature, so I stopped this project.

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Thanks so much! I’m going to dig into the blockly portion. I hope I can pick it up and contribute

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Hi @Huajiang , this looks cool! Our scheduler, Revolution has a 3D simulation built in. Also, coming soon is Revolution Web that will be web based, 3D simulation support, free … and with a huge driver support list… watch this space… since it’s going to be free anyone will be able to design and run a system and get an idea for throughput etc etc… should be super useful for system design even if you use another scheduler ultimately …

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Hi @mikecounsell , I find information of Revoluation in website of ukrobotics, and also I see the picture of 3D simuation. I think it is the first free scheduler software for laboratory automation, which is really a good thing for this field. How can I get this scheduler?

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Hi @Huajiang ! Currently, Revolution (classic version) is available only by licence however Revolution Web will be available from Feb 2024 when we will release it at SLAS 2024. Revolution Web is the new version that will include new features and a new licence model that will include a free tier. We intend to mix things up, adopt freemium licence model, open source parts of the codebase, allow 3rd party drivers/integration… the intention is to become the de facto standard in scheduling software for a broad range of system types… small bench top through to large turn-key… either supplied by UKR or by 3rd party integrators and system builders …

To answer your question about how can you get this scheduler, please get in contact with me directly via our website… we will include you in our Beta program.

Thanks!

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Thank you very much. The document for Revolution is enough for me. My meaning is only that there should be a way to get it if it is free. Profiting from service instead of software is noaday trending, and the user can not use the software propperly without service.