Log file evaluation of laboratory automation device with state machines

An operating system for a laboratory automation device, the operating system comprising:

• a laboratory automation device with a plurality of components, the laboratory automation device operable to perform a procedure;
• a monitoring and control device operable to control the components, receive messages from the components, and generate a log file from the messages;
• an evaluation device for determining states of the laboratory automation device, the evaluation device operable to:
• receive a log file from the laboratory automation device, the log file comprising entries of events that occurred during the procedure performed by the laboratory automation device, wherein the events have been created by one or more components of the laboratory automation device and each entry comprises at least an event time and an event type;
• invoke a state machine of the laboratory automation device, the state machine being a data structure and encoding states of the laboratory automation device and transitions between the states, wherein each transition is starting at a state and points to another state and wherein each transition is associated with an entry scheme in the log file, the entry scheme comprising at least an event type;
• set a current state of the laboratory automation device to a beginning state;
• move through the entries of the log file along increasing event time and associating the entries with the current state;
• during the moving, when an entry scheme associated with a transition starting at the current state is identified in the log file, change the current state to the state to which the transition is pointing;
• and
• determine a fault of the laboratory automation device by identifying a pattern of transitions in the log file wherein the transitions are sorted with respect to the event times of the entries associated with the transitions;
• display the entries of the log file and the state machine on a user interface;
• and
• highlight the state of the state machine associated with a selected entry of the log file.