# US 2006/0194350 A1 · Control system > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2006/0194350 A1 - Document ID: US20060194350A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 11/350,883 - Filed: 2006-02-10 - Published: 2006-08-31 - Earliest claimed: 2005-02-11 - Assignees: Kinematik Research Limited - Inventors: Dante Borillo; Kevin Keenan - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20060194350A1 ## CPC - G05B 19/0426: {Programming the control sequence} - G05B 2219/23425: Selection of program, adaptive to process - G05B 2219/23431: Change program on detection of deviations - G05B 2219/23443: Upon detected function changes of remote device, activate proper local program - G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G) ## Abstract A scientific experiment control system includes a main controller for high-level control, an experimental manager for lower-level control of scientific experiments, and a roll-up engine for automatically propagating modifications (or “changes”) within the system to ensure consistency across the system and instruments which are linked to it in an automatic and dynamic manner. When any of experiment control objects automatically detects a change event as defined by any of the metrics inherited from the metric objects it transmits a notification to an interface. The latter automatically instantiates a change event object, which is managed in a queue by an input interface of the roll-up engine. The roll-up engine automatically interrogates the network of objects contained in the program object to determine the identity of every object in the hierarchy down to the notifying object which is involved in performance of the current experiment run. It then automatically transmits a notification to each of these identified objects. The notification is simply a message identifying the event and the change event originating object. Each object which receives the notification has sufficient codes in its software code methods to automatically act upon the notification to implement the actions considered necessary. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A control system for controlling execution of scientific experiments by laboratory instruments, the control system comprising a control manager for instantiating objects in a containment relationship to control experiments, wherein. said experiment control objects automatically trigger change events according to pre-set metrics, the control system further comprises a roll-up engine for dynamically monitoring change events during execution of experiments, and the roll-up engine automatically transmits a change notification to all concerned experiment control objects when a change event occurs. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the experiment control objects have software code methods for automatically responding intelligently to said notifications to dynamically modify their experiment control operations. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the experiment control objects have software code methods for automatically responding intelligently to said notifications to dynamically modify their experiment control operations; and wherein the roll-up engine includes in a notification data indicating the change event in terms of pre-defined metrics. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a metrics manager for defining said metrics independently of the control manager. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a metrics manager for defining said metrics independently of the control manager, wherein the metrics manager: generates an interface, and generates at least one metric object linked with the interface, each metric object defining at least one metric. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the metrics manager associates experiment control objects with said interface, such that they inherit the metrics from the metric objects. ### Claim 7 (depends on 5) The control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the interface is an object instantiated by the metrics manager and containing the metric objects. ### Claim 8 (depends on 5) The control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the interface is an object instantiated by the metrics manager and containing the metric objects; and wherein the metrics manager associates experiment control objects with the metric objects by associating them with the interface so that they automatically inherit attributes of the metric objects. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the roll-up engine automatically determines which experiment control objects are concerned with a change event. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the roll-up engine automatically determines which experiment control objects are concerned with a change event; and wherein the roll-up engine automatically determines said experiment control objects by interrogating hierarchical relationships between experiment control objects linked with an experiment control object which triggered the change event. ### Claim 11 (depends on 5) The control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the metrics manager generates a hierarchy of interfaces and the roll-up engine listens to said hierarchy of interfaces for change events. ### Claim 12 (depends on 5) The control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the interface, when notified of a change event by any of the experiment control objects, automatically instantiates a change event object. ### Claim 13 (depends on 5) The control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the interface, when notified of a change event by any of the experiment control objects, automatically instantiates a change event object; and wherein the roll-up engine automatically manages a queue of said change event objects, processing each one in turn. ### Claim 14 (depends on 5) The control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein at least some of the experiment control objects have software code methods for automatically triggering modification of a metric object in response to a change event. ### Claim 15 (depends on 5) The control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein at least some of the experiment control objects have software code methods for automatically triggering modification of a metric object in response to a change event; and wherein said experiment control objects transmit a metric object modification instruction to the metric object to be modified via the interface. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control manager instantiates a high-level container object for an experiment program, and other experiment control objects are contained under said object. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The control system as claimed in claim 16, wherein a phase experiment control object is contained by a program object and is linked with a gate object for iteratively monitoring experiment data to determine if a current experiment phase should terminate and a further phase should be initiated. ### Claim 18 (depends on 1) A method of controlling a plurality of experiment runs by laboratory instruments, the method comprising the steps of coupling the instruments to a control system of claim 1, the experiment control objects generating control signals for the instruments, processing instrument outputs, and automatically triggering change events by comparing experiment data being processed with said pre-set metrics. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the instruments have different calibrations, and a change in calibration of a calibration setting in an instrument causes an experiment control object to trigger a change event.