Might give this a go on Fluent scheduler. As you say the solution is in the programming, worktable space and where you put holding areas to allow plates to flow through to each devices.
Just to clarify they are all running the same workflow:
Load Hotel > Pippetting > Incubate > Wash > Pippetting (stop reagent) > Incubate > Reader > End return plates to holding area? This is typical ELISA like workflow.
I can then put in some expects timings and pull a gantt to see how each persons plates flow.
Great point no on has brought up yet and that is if you have a small enough system you could really fit it all on a liquid handler and have the liquid handler be the scheduler. Awesome discussion for users and new automation engineers of this forum to read and see!
Correction to my last comment. With 72hr incubations/run this sounds more like a cell maintenance workflow. So I have based the Scheduler SIM on the workflow:
Load Hotel/Incubator > Pipetting (base cell count/viability) > Washer/dispenser (Media Change) > Incubator > possible repeats within the 72 hours > User retrieves plates from Hotel/Incubator.
Update: I have posted and example workflow SIM using Fluent Scheduler as an example lower footprint setup: Haren Arulanantham, PhD on LinkedIn: #tecan #fluent #liquidhandling #schedulingoptimization #labautomation…