Slide-scanner control

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by at least one hardware processor of a scanning system, cause the scanning system to:

• cause movement of each of a plurality of front-end components and a plurality of back-end components of the scanning system to respective initial zero positions by controlling a respective front-end state machine and back-end state machine, the plurality of front-end components comprising a carousel and a first set of motors and sensors, the carousel comprising a plurality of rack slots configured to receive a plurality of slide racks, wherein a first portion of the carousel is an exposed portion in which a portion of the carousel is accessible from an external environment of the scanning system and a second portion of the carousel is inaccessible from the external environment, and wherein each rack slot is associated, or is associable, with a detector that is positioned to determine whether or not the rack slot is occupied by a slide rack, the plurality of back-end components comprising a second set of motors and sensors to load and unload slide racks from the carousel and move glass slides between an unloaded slide rack and a scanning stage, wherein the front-end state machine operates independently from the back-end state machine;
• generate an inventory of all of the slide racks within the plurality of rack slots of the carousel;
• determine if any one of the slide racks is unloaded from the carousel to the back-end components based on the inventory;
• in response to the one of the slide racks being unloaded from the carousel, return the one of the slide racks to a corresponding one of the rack slots of the carousel by controlling the respective front-end state machine and back-end state machine;
• and
• position the carousel to expose a starting subset of the plurality of rack slots within the first portion of the carousel by controlling the respective front-end state machine and back-end state machine.

A method for controlling a scanning system, the method comprising:

• causing movement of each of a plurality of front-end components and a plurality of back-end components of the scanning system to respective initial zero positions by controlling a respective front-end state machine and back-end state machine, the plurality of front-end components comprising a carousel and a first set of motors and sensors, the carousel comprising a plurality of rack slots configured to receive a plurality of slide racks, wherein a first portion of the carousel is an exposed portion in which a portion of the carousel is accessible from an external environment of the scanning system and a second portion of the carousel is inaccessible from the external environment, and wherein each rack slot is associated, or is associable, with a detector that is positioned to determine whether or not the rack slot is occupied by a slide rack, the plurality of back-end components comprising a second set of motors and sensors to load and unload slide racks from the carousel and move glass slides between an unloaded slide rack and a scanning stage, wherein the front-end state machine operates independently from the back-end state machine;
• generating an inventory of all of the slide racks within the plurality of rack slots of the carousel;
• determining if any one of the slide racks is unloaded from the carousel to the back-end components based on the inventory;
• in response to the one of the slide racks being unloaded from the carousel, returning the one of the slide racks to a corresponding one of the rack slots of the carousel by controlling the respective front-end state machine and back-end state machine;
• and
• positioning the carousel to expose a starting subset of the plurality of rack slots within the first portion of the carousel by controlling the respective front-end state machine and back-end state machine.