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1. seeceeeee 3 2 USING THE TEACH PROGRAMS ceeeeceecceeceecns 3 3 THE ROBOT TEACH PROGRAM eeecensecceeecees 3 4 The Robot Teach Program Options Menu 3 4 Moving the Robot RETETE TEETER TEET 3 5 Naming a Position ssesssssersssecreee aaa green ays ote 3 7 Moving to a Position cece eect een encceceneces 3 8 8 86 CONTENTS Section Page Positioning the Gripper cceecceerserccecceenes 3 8 Defining Rack cccceccrcccceccccccevensecsnes 3 12 THE SYRINGE TEACH PROGRAM 2 cece eee cee ceneee 3 21 Accessing the Syringe Teach Program eesee0 3 22 Setting Up Syringe Parameters TEENE 3 23 Naming a Syringe Command s sssesssessoesesessoss 3 24 Executing a Syringe Command s essessocsessssereee 3 24 Naming a Valve Command sessssssess SEERE O B83 aN 3 25 Naming a Syringe Variable ssuesossoees set eceseeee 3 26 THE DEVICE INTERFACE TEACH PROGRAM 6 3 27 Accessing the Device Interface Teach Program 3 28 Using the Switch Outputs Program cseeeeceeseee 3729 Using the Inputs Program cececevccreceeceesceeee Smal Using the AC Outlets Program ccecceescecsereee 3733 Using the Alarm Program eeeeeeeeereeeeees cee 3 35 Using the Differences Program csceseceeeeeees 3 37 Using the Input Controlled Actions Program 3 40 THE BALANCE TEACH PROGRAM cccccceseeceves 3 42 Accessing the Balance Teach Program cseeeeecees 3 4
2. 0 cece cee ccevccneeacs 6 12 Using a Syringe Variable ceceeeenneeee 6 13 MIXING serae serpa ance wcdeescaseneee ess Aa 6 14 Crimping soso 60 sie ie 6 46 5 bie Bale ao betel di 06 6d A 6 15 Weighing Sin in gions eee Welle EERTE EEE ETE 6 16 8 86 CONTENTS Section Page APPENDIX 1 ERROR MESSAGES ccc cece ccc cess ccsccece Al 1 APPENDIX 2 USEFUL DOS COMMANDS cc cccecccccrccces A2 1 LEAVING PERL ACCESSING DOS A2 1 DOS COMMANDS s iieco 5 e 6 4 0esb0 8 kra ane bre aes a A2 1 APPENDIX 3 CONTROL CHARACTERS AND THEIR PERL ABBREVIATIONS ccceeee A3 1 APPENDIX 4 SAMPLE PERL APPLICATION ceeee wees A4 APPENDIX 5 PERL RESERVED WORDS cccccecccccee oe A5 1 REFERENCE GUIDE TO PERL 8 86 Figure 1 1 1 2 2 1 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 5 3 6 3 7 3 8 3 9 ILLUSTRATIONS Page Interaction among Modules of the MasterLab Automated Sample Preparation System essesssssesessessoe eee ee 1 2 The PERL Programming Environment ceecscecessees 1 3 PERL Main Screen TET E E EE EET 2 14 Teach Program Selection Menu eceeececccnccvccvcevcues 3 3 Robot Teach Program Options cceceseccreccccvvsssues 3 4 The Teach Pendant ccevecccccccccesccscvvevscescesenes 3 6 Robot Motion in the X Y and Z Planes sececescsvnees 3 6 Grippers on Robot Hand Closed and Open sseeeeeeseees 3 10 Some Unusual Racks cceeceeec cece cece eee vescccsec
3. ZAO KO A V 4 5 6 7 3 18 The next sereen contains the following instructions Position the Robot to Tube Position A Press the ENTER Key to Compute X Y Z Coordinates To accomplish this a Turn on the Teach Pendant using the ON OFF switch on the top See Figure 3 3 b Use the R oll keys on the Teach Pendant to rotate the wrist 90 degrees so that the pipette tip adapter is facing downwards c Use the six X Y and Z touch pad keys in the top three rows of the right column to move the robot into position above the first pipette tip A in Figure 3 7 Place the hand in position so that the adapter is inserted into the tip Figure 3 4 shows the direction of motion initiated by the X Y and Z keys Important Teach positions A B and C exactly as indicated in Figure 3 7 Changing the order will cause unpredictable behavior from the robot d When the position of the robot is correct turn off the Teach Pendant e Press Enter The X Y and Z coordinates of the position will appear in the upper right side of the sereen The screen message changes to request the second tube position Repeat steps a through e above positioning the robot above the first tube in the last row B in Figure 3 7 Keep the wrist in the proper position to pick up a pipette tip The sereen message then changes to request the third tube position Repeat steps a through e positioning the robot above the last tu
4. or a variable such as display sample_number In the latter case the monitor would display the actual number presently assigned to the variable sample_number The statement may contain a combination of constants variables and expressions separated by semicolons At execution the semicolons prevent the cursor from advancing between each element of the display The next constant variable or expression immediately follows the one which pre cedes it This statement display Sample number sample_number of total_samples would give the following result if the robot were at the twenty eighth of forty samples Sample number 28 of 40 Note that quotation marks are necessary around the string constants 8 86 4 25 You may tab between items on a displayed line if you wish The monitor sereen is divided into vertical zones by tabs set every 14 spaces at columns 14 28 42 etc If you separate the variables and constants in a display statement by commas rather than semicolons each item will begin at the beginning of the next zone This feature is useful for printing columns of data The lines display sample no mass vol display sample_num samp_wt samp_vol could be used as part of a procedure to generate a table of data sample no mass vol 1 0 025 2 51 2 0 023 2 48 Displays will begin by default at the present cursor location However you ean place the display wherever you wish by means of the cur
5. procedure diskio rem rem rem rem rem exit_flag n Set up the loop condition to loop through the WHILE loop until the EXIT option is selected from the menu Once the EXIT option is selected EXIT_FLAG will have the value y and the WHILE loop will terminate while exit_flag lt gt y rem rem rem rem rem rem rem rem rem rem rem clear After the screen is cleared place the title of our procedure on the screen centered with a box drawn around it It is important that the title be in the variable title because the procedure box will use the value of titles to center and draw the box for the header This is an example of how the value of the variable exists beyond the current procedure that it is used in title DISK I O TEST box Draw the menu cursor 10 27 display 1 Read and display cursor 11 27 display 2 Write data to datafile cursor 13 27 display 9 Exit ren ren A4 2 Now that the menu is drawn prompt the user for the menu item desired The In other words we only want the 9 otherwise the screen rem UNTIL loop is used to validate the input rem user to enter a 1 2 or 9 and everything else is invalid So if an invalid rem item is entered the user is re prompted for the desired menu item rem until menu_item 1 or menu_item 2 or menu_item cursor 20 27 input Enter menu item desired menu_item end until rem rem A valid menu item has
6. 0993 8155 PERKIN ELMER ROBOT LANGUAGE PERL INSTRUCTIONS August 1986 PERKIN ELM ER NORWALK CONNECTICUT U S A Perk n Elmer s a trademark of tre Perk 7 Elm on Copyright 1986 The Perkin Elmer Corporation All rights reserved Reproduction or publication in any form or format prohibited without written permission of The Perkin Elmer Corporation or any of its subsidiaries PERKIN ELMER CUSTOMER LICENSE AGREEMENT THE PROGRAM FURNISHED HEREWITH S LICENSED BY PERKIN ELMER TO CUSTOMERS FOR THEIR USE ONLY ON THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH BELOW OPENING THE DISKETTE PACKAGE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS 1 0 DEFINITIONS 5 0 NOTICES AND LEGENDS 4 1 Licensed Program shall mean any Object Code supplied by LICENSOR under this License 5 1 LICENSEE agrees to reproduce and include any copyright notices trademarks or other legends or credits included in the Licensed Program or requested in writing by LICENSOR in and on every copy made by LICENSEE of Licensed Program or part thereof The existence of any copyright notice shall not be construed as an admission or presumption of publication of the Licensed Program 1 2 Designated Equipment shall mean a computer system manufactured by PERKIN ELMER 1 3 Use shall mean the copying of any portion of Licensed Program from a storage unit or media into the Designated Equipment and executing any portion of Licensed Program on the Desig
7. lt gt lt gt lt gt Exponentiation AND OR ONION SP Owe Functions Certain numeric and character functions are preprogrammed in PERL You can use them simply by naming the function and the variable on which it is to be used For example the absolute value function is named abs The following statement would cause the absolute value of the expression 3 a 5 to be displayed on the monitor display abs 3 a 5 If a were equal to 4 the result displayed would be 17 The functions supported by PERL are listed in Tables 4 4 and 4 5 with their formats and an example of each 4 5 TABLE 4 4 NUMERIC FUNCTIONS Important Ali angles are expressed in radians Function Format Absolute Value abs x Arecosine arecos x Aresine aresin x Arctangent aretan x Cosine cos x Cosecant ese x Cotangent cot x Exponent returns e exp x to the xth power Exponent to base 10 exp10 x returns 10 to the xth power Integer Note that int x the number is trun catea To round use int x 0 5 Log to base e log x Log to base 10 log10 x Sine sin x Square Root sqrt x Tangent tan x Example display abs 25 73 48 display arecos U 9659262 0 261798 display aresin 0 2588177 0 261798 display arctan 3 1 249046 display cos 0 2617980 0 965928 display cot 1 047192 0 577358 display exp 1 2 718282 display exp10 2 100 aisplay int 123 567 123 display log 2 0 693
8. 8 turn_off_mixer 9 down_3em 10 close_gripper 11 above_mixer 12 end procedure 8 86 5 6 3 To change the 3em distance in lines 6 and 9 to 2em a b c d Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the 3 in line 6 Press the Del key The 3 will be deleted Press the Ins key and type 2 A 2 willbe inserted Press Ins again to turn off the insert function Repeat steps a c for line 9 4 Use the same procedure as in step 3 to change the 30 in line 7 to 15 5 To insert a wait for timer statement after line 7 a b e Place the cursor in line 8 Press the F9 Insert Line function key A blank line will appear above line 8 Move the cursor to the blank line and type wait for timer 1 Enter 6 To change the above_mixer commands in lines 2 and 11 to over_mixer a b e Press the F7 Edit Commands function key to bring up the Edit Commands menu Highlight Change String and press Enter In response to the prompts which will appear type String to Change above_mixer Replace with over_mixer Note It is a good idea to give the longest possible string to be changed If in the example above you had typed only above to be changed commands such as above_rack or above_tube would also have been changed throughout your procedure 7 To move lines 4 6 so that they follow line 2 a b Place the cursor at the beginning of line 4 Press F7 to bring up the Edit Com
9. The inputs on the device interface monitor logic inputs from external devices One of these inputs for example may be connected to the vacuum device on the crimper When the input reports that the switch to which it is connected is on the vacuum is on The device interface receives the input that the switch is on but cannot change its setting Thus there is no Manual Control option in the Input portion of the Teach Program When you highlight Inputs on the device interface options menu and press Enter the menu shown in Figure 3 12 will appear Inputs Device Interface Teach Module Name Input Command Execute Input Command Status of the Inputs F6 Help F7 Quit F8 Bkup F9 Up Fi0 Dn Figure 3 12 Inputs Menu Name Input Command An input command causes the system to check the status of one of the twelve inputs You will want to have such a command for each input to which a module is connected 8 86 1 2 3 4 3 32 Highlight Name Input Command on the Inputs menu Press Enter A list of the twelve switches will appear The cursor is positioned at switch 1 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the name of the switch which is to be used in the command Press Enter You will be prompted to type in a command name Type in a name having up to 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example Command Name
10. The syringe Teach Program options menu will return You can now proceed to name your new command it can then be executed to establish in the syringe module the parameter settings you have indicated Naming a Syringe Command 1 Highlight Name Syringe Command on the syringe Teach Program options menu Press Enter 2 When the prompt Command Name appears type the name you wish to give to the arrangement of syringe parameters you established in the previous section The name must contain no more than 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example you could type Command Name fill _syr 4ml 3 Press Enter Your command name will be stored in the PERL Directory and the syringe Teach Program options will return to the sereen Executing a Syringe Command If you wish to see whether the command you constructed functions as you intended you can use the Teach Program to have the syringe carry out the command 1 Highlight Execute Syringe Command on the options menu and press Enter The screen will prompt Command Name 8 86 3 25 2 Type the name of the command you wish to execute and press Enter The syringe will execute the command For example if your command was fill syr_4ml the plunger on the syringe should move from the 0 00 ml mark to the 4 ml mark and 4 ml of liquid will be drawn in 3 Proceed to enter another command or press F8 Bkup to return to the s
11. crimper_vac Press Enter Your command will be stored in the PERL directory You may proceed to move the cursor to another switch and name another command or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Inputs menu Note The device interface Input commands are used in applications programs to monitor conditions For example the robot should not attempt to fill a vial whose cap was not left behind at the crimper station vacuum device The following program segment checks that the vacuum was on x crimper_vac rem Variable x receives value of crimper_vac go_to_vac if x 0 then sound_alarm err_rtn end if go_to_syringe Execute Input Command After you have created a command you can use the Execute Input Command option to see if it functions as you intended 1 2 3 Highlight Execute Input Command on the Inputs menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter the name of a command Type the name of the command you wish to execute for example Command Name ecrimper_vae Press Enter The status of the input switch used in the command will be reported The message Please Press the ENTER Key to Continue 8 86 3 33 A will appear Press Enter to enter another command to be executed or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Inputs menu or F7 Quit to return to PERL Status of the Inputs This option allows you to see the present ON OFF status of each of the twelve inputs 1 Highlight St
12. return to PERL State of the Differences This option allows you to see the present ON OFF status of each of the twelve inputs 1 Highlight Status of the Differences on the Differences menu Press Enter A list of the twelve input switches will appear Beside each will appear either a 0 if no change has occurred or a 1 if there has been a change At the bottom of the sereen is the message Please Press the ENTER Key to Continue 2 When you are ready to return to the Difference options menu press ENTER 8 86 CaA 3 40 Using the Input Controlled Actions Program Input controlled action commands allow the device interface to autonomously control an output in response to a change in an input This is useful whenever the response to a changed input needs to be immediate You could for example have the device interface turn on the output to an instrument take_reading as soon as the input from that instrument indicates the instrument is ready When you highlight Input Controlled Actions on the device interface options menu and press Enter the menu shown in Figure 3 16 will appear input Controlled Actions Device Interface Teach Module Name Input Controlled Action Command Execute Input Controlled Action Command Manuel Control of Input Controlled Action Fo Help F Guit F Bkup F9 p Fi Dn Figure 3 16 Input Controlled Actions Menu Manual Control of Input Controlled Action The Manual Control option is us
13. weight get_weight if weight 0 then break end if process num_of_samples num_of_samples 1 end while data_prs In the above example if the sample weight is 0 then the procedure does not continue with the process_sample statement Instead it exits from the while loop and continues with data_prs If you use a break statement within nested loops the break applies only to the innermost of the loops presently executing Control will continue at the first statement outside that loop In the example which follows two loops are executing Break removes control from the for next innermost loop but not the while loop 8 86 4 38 num_of_samples 40 while num_of_samples gt 0 get_samp way_samp weight get_weight for i 1to5 move_to_syr fill 1m1 way_samp weight get_weight if weight 1 1 then break end if pr_nusam next i num_of samples num_of samples 1 end while data_prs In the preceding example successive 1 ml aliquots are removed from the sample tube within the for next loop The if statement tests to be sure there is 1 ml remaining in the tube for the next aliquot If not control is transferred out of the for next loop to the statement following the next i However control is still within the while loop 8 86 4 39 Input Output Via RS232 Ports PERL permits serial communication with external devices connected to the RS232 ports Defining a buffer Whether the c
14. Because the Sartorius MP 8 is a bidirectional interface you can use a command from PERL to tare the balance When you use a tare command in a procedure follow it with a weigh command to ensure that the tare command was properly executed 1 Highlight Name Tare Command on the balance options menu 8 86 2 3 4 5 3 45 Press Enter You will be prompted to enter a command name Type in the name of the command you wish to create The name must contain no more than 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example command name tare_it Press Enter The command name will be stored in the PERL Directory Proceed to name another command or press F8 Bkup to return to the balance options menu 8 86 4 THE PERL LANGUAGE Section Page 4 THE PERL LANGUAGE cc ccc cece cc ccc cece ccc cccesees 4 1 ELEMENTS OF PERL 4 Peer reer reer rer ee eee 4 1 PERL Statements cecccccccccvcccccccccsevesacs 4 1 Arguments Used in PERL Statements ceeeeceee 4 2 Constants and Variables cccescccccccvoes 4 2 Array Variables cccccccccccccccveveccscces 4 3 EXpressionS cecccscccccccccccccvcesscnvecs 4 3 Functions cccccccccsccrccccecvcccsccsccsece Ad PERL STATEMENTS wccceccccccecccccccccccccscccccees 4 7 Housekeeping Statements ccsscccccccceccccccs 4 11 System Control weccccceccccencccecscccccccecceess 4 13 Device Commands eeresesessoseseses
15. F7 Quit F8 Bkup F9 Up F10 Dn Figure 3 13 AC Outlets Menu Press Enter The outlet will be set as you have indicated You may proceed to set the other outlet or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the A C Outlets menu Name A C Outlet Command This option allows you to name a command which corresponds to a specified ON OFF setting Every time the command is executed the switch will go to the desired setting 1 2 3 Highlight Name Outlet Command on the A C Outlets menu Press Enter A list of the outlets will appear at the right of the sereen The cursor is positioned at A C outlet 1 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the name of the outlet which is to be used in the command Press Enter Check that the ON OFF state of the switch as reported at the bottom of the screen is as you wish Otherwise change it by using the up and down arrow keys or F9 and F10 Press Enter You will be prompted to type in a command name Type in a name having up to 16 characters none of which may be a space The first character must be alphabetic For example Command Name mixer_on 8 86 3 35 G 4 Press Enter Your command will be stored in the PERL directory You may proceed to move the cursor to the other outlet and name another command or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the A C Outlets menu Execute A C Outlet Command After you have c
16. System Controller then turn the Controller on If your System Controller is already on insert the diskette and then reset the Controller by pressing CTRL ALT and DEL simultane ously After a pause the date will be displayed If it is not correct enter the correct date in either of these formats 8 1 85 8 1 85 Press Enter 8 86 3 The present time will then be displayed hours minutes seconds hundredths of a second If it is not correct enter the correct hours and minutes in the format 9 05 Press Enter The DOS prompt A gt will appear Creating a Data Disk In general you will load the PERL DOS work disk into drive A and use a data disk in drive B for saving your created procedures directory of commands and data files To create your first data disk use the following procedure to place the necessary files on a disk in drive B a b c d e With the PERL DOS work disk in drive A place a formatted disk in drive B Type copy HOM b and press Enter The system will copy the initialization procedure s for your robot s onto the disk in drive B To make drive B the default drive type b and press Enter The prompt will become B gt Place your CONFIG work disk in drive A Create your system configuration file PERL SCF as follows Type a config and press Enter Follow the procedure given in Creating the System Configuration File below The system will place the
17. a one row rack see the following paragraph Racks Consisting of a Single Row If you wish to define a one row rack you must still teach the robot three positions Teach the first position twice it is the first location in the first row and also the first location in the last row The third position to be taught is the last location in the row See Figure 3 6b Racks with Offset Rows If suecessive rows in a rack are offset from each other as in Figure 3 6c the rack must be defined as if there were two racks The first rack consists of the numbered rows when it is defined location 1 in row 1 and locations 1 and 10 in row 5 are taught The second rack consists of the lettered rows location A in row A and locations A and 1 in row B are taught The applications program will of course have to deal with the two racks in such a way that the samples are processed in an orderly fashion The following pages contain three sets of instructions for teaching racks test tube racks applicable to most other racks as well pipette tip racks stacks of items Test Tube Racks 1 Before you select Define a Rack on the options menu you must first set the grip pressure to a low value as follows a b Highlight Position the Gripper on the options menu Press Enter The gripper menu will appear Highlight Set the Grip Pressure on the gripper menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter three parameter
18. alarm will be set as you have indicated Use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Alarm menu Name Alarm Command This option allows you to name a command which corresponds to a specified ON OFF alarm setting Every time the command is executed the alarm will be turned on or off as specified 1 2 3 4 Highlight Name Alarm Command on the Alarm menu Press Enter Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the desired setting Press Enter You will be prompted to type in a command name Type in a name having up to 16 characters none of which may be a space The first character must be alphabetic For example Command Name sound_alarm Press Enter Your command will be stored in the PERL directory Use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Alarm menu 8 86 3 37 ae After you have created a command you can use the Execute Command option to see if the command functions as you intended Execute Alarm Command 1 Highlight Execute Command on the Alarm menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter the name of a command 2 Type the name of the command you wish to execute for example Command Name alarm_off 3 Press Enter The command will be executed You may proceed to enter another command to be executed or you may use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Alarm menu Using the Differences Program A difference command detects a t
19. been entered so now perform the appropriate process rem rem rem Option 1 uses procedure FREADINP to read a disk file amp display its contents rem Option 2 uses procedure FWRITOUT to create a disk file rem Option 9 will prompt the user if they are sure that they want to exit this rem procedure If they are then it will exit rem will be redrawn rem case menu_item is 1 freadinp is 2 fwritout is 9 resp 0 until resp 1 or resp 2 cursor 23 1 input Are you sure y n resp if resp y then resp 1 exit_flag y else if resp n then resp 2 end if end if end until end case end while end procedure SUBPROCEDURES box ren rem rem rem rem rem rem rem This procedure displays the header for this application The header consists of a centered box drawn around the title of the application The size of the box is directly dependent upon the size of the title This example shows the user characters that cannot be accessed from the These characters are accessed by using their octal codes in See your PERL user manual for further details keyboard a string procedure box rem rem rem rem rem The variable title contains the title of this application It s value is set by the invoking procedure title in order to be able to center it title_size len title We want to know the length of the A4 3 rem rem We calculate the starting column for drawing the box rem
20. ceceseccccccceccsecvescenees essene 4 5 4 5 String F n tions sase seuss ee eae raTa IGE SE ewi 4 6 4 6 The IBM PC Characters and Their Octal Codes s ssses 4 27 8 86 1 INTRODUCTION Section 1 INTRODUCTION sesssosecesossscosseoeesesesoocosoo DESCRIPTION OF PERL ssssosessssecesecosoesoeooo Characteristics essesecsosoeosocssesosocesoso The PERL Programming Environment ceccseesee Tools Used Directly by the Programmer seeeee Tools Invisible to the Programmer es ssssecececesoos The Structure of PERL Applications Programs Creating a PERL Procedure ccccccecccvcccceces USING THIS MANUAL cececcccccccccvccceeccsccceece Organization sssssessososesocsoesesocooocoeeoe Conventions ececceccecccccccecens sosoossoosoooo SEND US YOUR IDEAS eooeessoseoosecsocesooo SOFTWARE LICENSING AGREEMENT cseccccsecccens Page INTRODUCTION DESCRIPTION OF PERL Characteristics PERL Perkin Elmer Robot Language is a new software language devised for use in the Model 9000 MasterLab Automated Sample Preparation System It is specifically intended to facilitate communication in a robotics system The MasterLab System consists of a number of modules Some of the modules in the system such as the robot the syringe station the device interface and the balance are able to communicate via RS232 ports with the System Controller IBM PC as shown in Figure 1 1 A unique facility the Teach P
21. device is the monitor screen Available from DCP only log Creates a file on disk which will contain everything sent to the screen clear Clears the PERL screen redirect output to coml redirect input from newfile log monday log clear A ROBOT COMMANDS open Open grippers close Close grippers speed Set speed of robot 0 9 possible 0 slowest 9 fastest up Moves the robot up a specified dis tance in mm from its present position down Moves the robot down a specified distance in mm from its present position 8 86 open close speed 7 up 5 down 4 2 18 relative Moves the robot relative to its present relative 2 4 6 5 5 position The arguments specify mm in the x y and z directions and relative 2 2 4 degrees of wrist pitch and roll respectively See Robot Com relative 0 0 0 20 mands in Section 4 for details TIMER COMMANDS set timer Sets one of ten software timers for set timer 1 for specified number of minutes 10 seconds or seconds wait for Tells system to do nothing until wait for timer 1 timer previously set timer has elapsed SYSTEM CONTROL COMMANDS dos Returns to operating system dos PERL remains in memory See System Control Commands in Sec tion 4 for other uses of dos system Returns to operating system system PERL is aborted link Links all the subprocedures used ina link proc_mix main procedure Generates an exe cutable disk file wit
22. following example there are two statement lines after each is line total_vol weigh_empty_tube get_samp vol_sample weigh_sample case vol_sample is 10 prp_10ml total_vol total_vol 10 is 5 prep_5ml total_vol total_vol 5 end case If the case block contains two or more is lines in succession PERL inter prets them as if they were connected by a logical or For example case name is Fred is Sam proe_men is Harriet proc_wmn end case In the above procedure the system would execute proc_men if name were either Fred or Sam The optional default statement is equivalent to an else If all the other conditions fail the system will execute the default For example case i is 1 display I is 1 is 2 is 3 display I is 2 or 3 default display I is not 1 2 or 3 end case In the example the default display I is not 1 2 or 3 would appear if i were anything other than 1 2 or 3 8 86 4 34 Repeated Actions Loops seeen wi SEOS ere ns F ee e o 0 bet e o e gt e a C2 L e e e e fo e ee Sa POA Ie anne e a oc ROCIO eS When the same steps are to be carried out several times in suecession in a procedure it is wasteful of programmer time and computer memory to re peat the program lines involved Instead the repeated lines are enclosed in a program loop The loop begins with a for statement whic
23. from items in a menu use the Up and Dn keys F9 and F10 to highlight the desired item and press the Enter key to complete the selection 8 86 6 7 8 2 12 When the parameters for the module are modified as you wish press the Dn function key F10 until you reach the bottom of the parameter list You will see the following message Please Press the ENTER Key to Continue To continue operation in Config press the Enter key To store the information just entered in the system configuration file and return to the DOS environment press the Quit function key F7 The system queries Save the current modifications y n Press y to save the modified communications parameters for the module s n to retain the previous set of communications parameters for the module s Deleting a Module Config enables you to delete any module from the MasterLab System Proceed as follows 1 2 Use the Up and Dn keys F9 and F10 to highlight the option on the main menu of Config labeled Delete a Module and press the Enter key A list of the modules presently in the system configuration file is displayed on the screen Highlight the module that you wish to delete and press the Enter key The module is deleted from the system configuration file PERL SCF Important Deletion is instantaneous Be certain that you wish to delete the module from the file before you press the Enter key If you make a mistake u
24. instructions for using the Teach Pendant and the interactive Teach Programs to create the commands needed for your new applications Section 4 The PERL Languag contains descriptions of the statements which are permanent features of PERL Section 5 The Editor explains how to access and use the Editor for writing and editing procedures and files It includes a tutorial section Section 6 Creating and Running an Application Program takes you through the steps involved in planning and writing an applications program It includes sample subroutines for common operations Conventions PERL statements or portions of statements such as if a b then and x abs y which are referred to within the text of the manual are in lower case enclosed in quotation marks This is not meant to imply that quotes are needed around statements when programming No quotes are used in the ease of procedure segments which are indented to set them off from the surrounding text if a b then get_tube else process _ sample end if rr Responses which you must type in after a prompt are printed in bold type name newrobot SEND US YOUR IDEAS We at Perkin Elmer are continuing to work to improve the features of PERL and to ensure that the software performs as well as possible We welcome your suggestions for enhancements to PERL as well as your reports of problems with it Please use the Software Change Request form found at the beginning
25. may need to insert the DOS disk in drive A When you are ready to return to PERL type perl and press Enter The PERL screen reappears without the modules having to be re initialized Note Your system must have sufficient memory in order to be able to use the DOS mode within PERL and you must have copied the DOS file COMMAND COM onto your PERL DOS work disk To abort PERL and return to DOS type system and press Enter or use F7 Quit You will then be able to issue DOS commands or to load other software 8 86 3 THE TEACH PROGRAMS Section 3 THE TEACH PROGRAMS cccccccccccccccvcssceesoese INTRODUCTION cececcccccccccccccccccccccccsececces Before the Teach Programs The System Configuration File wccccccsccvcccccccscccccevesccsccescvcscees The Interactive Teaching Process sssseseseecseose USING THE TEACH PROGRAMS 6 errr errr THE ROBOT TEACH PROGRAM cecccccevcvscsesccees The Robot Teach Program Options Menu ceeseeee Moving the Robot cscccsesccccccscscesnvccvenes Naming a Position csccccccecccccecccccsescces Moving to a Position cccccecccccccccecscvccees Positioning the Gripper eescecccccccccccncccene Defining a Rack cccccccccccccccccccccccccccscces THE SYRINGE TEACH PROGRAM ccecevacvscecvecces Accessing the Syringe Teach Program eseeesseees Setting Up Syringe Parameters cccecccvcencnce Naming a Syringe Command ccccesccccccccececccs Executing a Syringe Command c
26. menu and press Enter A sereen similar to the one in Figure 3 9 will appear It lists the four syringe parameters and indicates the present value of each parameter for each of the two syringes in the module The Position setting of 0 00 ml indieates that the syringe plunger is completely depressed There is an active cursor available at the first position on the sereen Volume of Syringe One Setup Syringe Parameters Syringe Teach Module Syringe One Syringe Two 10 00 ml Position Speed 1 15 F6 Help F7 Quit F8 Bkup F9 Up F1i0 Dn Figure 3 9 Syringe Parameter Screen 2 Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the parameter you wish to change Press Enter The allowed values for each parameter are as follows volume 0 05 to 10 00 ml position 0 00 to the volume of the syringe speed 1 to 15 seconds 1 is not recom mended valve input or output 8 86 3 24 3 Type in the appropriate value such as 4 00 or o for output or i for input Again press Enter 4 Repeat steps 2 and 3 to make any other necessary changes Note The Valve parameters for the two syringes must be the same either both input or both output The system will change them both if either one is changed See Figure 3 8 Speed settings of 2 to 15 indicate the number of seconds for a complete plunger cycle The default value is 4 5 When all parameters are set as you wish your new command to make them press F8 Bkup
27. of display for a description of the varieties of syntax available The print screen statement causes the entire contents of the screen to be output to the printer When you are in the Direct Command Processor you ean accomplish the same thing by pressing the shift key and the PRint SCReen key simultaneously The printer must be turned on 8 86 4 31 Making Decisions within Programs if e pression theni statement s lelse statement s i end if When the system encounters a statement beginning with if and an expres sion it evaluates the expression to see if it is true or false If the expres sion is true the statements following then will be executed If it is not true the statements following else if any will be executed The follow ing examples of if statements have a variety of expressions to be evalu ated if timer 1 0 then if instrument_ready 0 then if instr a b 0 then if sample_wt lt 0 5 then The first example refers to whether the time set on timer 1 has elapsed The second refers to a condition which would have been previously defined in terms of a switch being on or off The third tests the condition of a string function from Table 4 5 The last involves relational operators The operators allowed in PERL are equal to lt gt not equal to lt less than lt less than or equal to gt greater than gt greater than or equal to AND logical AND OR logical OR N
28. of samples to process samples end until until samples 0 get_samp weigh process samples samples 1 end until The procedure segment which follows uses the while statement A major difference between until and while is that the system terminates execu tion of the body of the while as soon as the condition is no longer met the body of an until will be carried out at least once before it is terminated until samples gt 0 and samples lt 41 input enter the number of samples to process samples end until while samples gt 0 get_samp weigh process samples samples 1 end while 8 86 4 23 You can use numeric and string functions from Tables 4 4 and 4 5 as conditions in until and while statements for example while sqrt x lt 100 All while and until blocks must be terminated by an appropriate end statement as seen in the examples above 8 86 4 24 Input Output to the Monitor and Keyboard dis desired output cursor h line no v colum no clear As a PERL procedure is running it may use the monitor to give the operator information such as the number of the sample being prepared It may also prompt the operator when human action is needed Such monitor displays are initiated by display statements within the procedure This is similar to the PRINT statement in BASIC The argument of a display statement may be a constant as in display End of UV sample preparation
29. output to the monitor 4 24 display devices Displays the configurations for all devices in the system configuration file 4 17 dos command or batchfile Returns control to the operating system PERL remains in memory 4 13 Moves the robot down a specified distance from its present position 4 18 else See if 4 31 end procedure Statement which ends every procedure and subroutine 4 11 End of file function Checks to see if the present record is the last in the file 4 42 for var expression to expression step expression First line of a program loop 4 34 from See redirect 4 28 and read 4 40 if expression then statement else statement end if Allows different actions to follow depending on whether the expression is true or not 4 31 14d 0 apinb aduajajay Reference guide to PERL The following alphabetical listing gives a format and a brief summary of the use of each PERL function or statement For complete descriptions with examples see the indicated pages in Section 4 of this manual NUMERIC FUNCTIONS In using these functions express all angles in radians See page 4 5 for examples Function abs x arccos x arcsin x arctan x cos x esc x cot x exp x Definition Absolute value of x Arccosine in radians of x Aresine in radians of x Arctangent in radians of X Cosine of x radians Cosecant of x radi
30. start_colx 38 int title_size 2 5 rem rem We build a string of 315 s 315 is the octal code for a character that rem is used as the straight line in our box It is actually 2 parallel lines rem strgh t_line 315 315 315 315 315 315 315 315 315 315 315 315 315 315 rem rem This line allows us to increase the length of the string by using string rem concatenation operations rem strght_line strght_line strght_line strght_line tstrght_line rem rem Draw the top of the box 311 is the upper left corner character and 273 rem is the upper right corner character rem cursor 1 start_col display 311 left strght_line title_size 2 273 rem rem Draw the title line in the box including the box lines 272 rem cursor 2 start_col display 272 titles 272 rem rem Draw the bottom of the box 310 is the lower left corner character and rem 274 is the lower right corner character rem cursor 3 start_colX display 310 left strght_line title_sizeX 2 274 rem rem Now that the box is drawn the procedure performs an implicit return to rem the invoking procedure rem end procedure freadinp rem rem This is procedure freadinp It reads the contents of a disk file and disp rem lays it to the console The name of the disk file is TESTFILE and it is rem hardcoded in our example It should be noted that the file name may be rem replaced by a string varia
31. take the test tube to the dispensing stand under_disp to draw solvent and air into the syringe with valve in input position move plunger to 1 8 ml fill_1 8_solvnt with valve in output position move plunger to 1 9 ml fill_0 1_air to raise the tube of sample at_dispenser to draw sample into the syringe with valve in output position move plunger from 1 9 to 2 1 ml fill_0 2_sample to lower the sample test tube under_disp Note In actual practice you should teach the robot several at least 2 intermediate positions between under_disp and at_disp Otherwise the robot hand will describe an are between these two extreme positions and the test tube may knock against and bend the dispensing probe tasks 10 and 11 take an aliquot of sample This procedure called aliquot will be similar to fill _syr except that it will not need to begin with picking up a tube no solvent will be drawn in although an air bubble will be there will be 1 0 ml of sample drawn in not 0 2 the rack to which the tube is returned will be called empties To program aliquot you will need to create the following additional commands to draw air and sample into the syringe with the valve in output position move the plunger from 0 0 to 0 1 ml make_bubble with the valve in output position move the plunger from 0 1 to 1 1 ml fill 1_ml The planning process is complete You have a list of existing procedures which you c
32. the Z component of the pick up direction is greater than zero The wrist pitch and roll angles will be the same as when the rack was taught You can treat stacked items such as 96 well plates as if they were a vertical rack with only one row Inserting a test tube in a test tube holder on the mixer or balance for example is like putting it in a rack with 1 column and 1 row Finally there are racks which do not consist of orderly rows and columns Some possibilities for handling these are described below and illustrated in Figure 3 6 Subdivided Racks If you have two or more different kinds of test tubes which will be placed in the same rack tubes of standards and tubes of samples for example you may subdivide the rack For example if the first row contained standards and the rest of the 8 86 3 13 e e e eeoeee stad oo0oo0oo0000000 CODODODO OOO OD OC fsm OO COOCO OOO a Subdivided Rack h YO 0 zos OO OO Ov OO Ist Position 3rd Position 2nd Position b Single row Rack jee DWOOOOOKOO OOOOOO OO OOKHOOGO O B OOOOOOOO 10 OOOOOOO c Rack With Offset Rows Figure 3 6 Some Unusual Racks 8 86 3 14 rack contained samples you could use the Define a Rack option twice as if there were two racks See Figure 3 6a The first row could be separately defined as a rack called standards and the next three rows could be called samples To define
33. x seconds If the system is to do nothing else until the time has elapsed the set timer statement would be followed by wait for timer 1 or wait for timer n On other occasions certain actions may be performed until the time elapses In that case you could use the while or the until statement see the next section set timer 1 for 30 seconds mix_samp while timer 1 1 cursor 10 10 display Still mixing end while get_sample When there is unexpired time remaining the timer is equal to 1 When the time has elapsed the timer equals 0 The while end while statements in the above procedure are equivalent to wait for timer 1 8 86 4 21 The following timer statements both begin loops which depend on the timer being unequal to zero if timer 3 while timer 3 while timer 3 1 These statements mean if or while timer 3 has not expired is unequal to zero 8 86 4 22 Co ordinated Procedures Until and While until condition end until while eondition end while Sometimes different actions are dependent on each other one action is to be carried out while a certain condition is true or until another action is completed In these situations use the until or while statements The following series of statements could be used to have the robot weigh and process samples for as long as there were any samples in the rack until samples gt 0 and samples lt 41 input enter the number
34. 147 display log10 1000 3 display sin 0 2617980 0 258818 display sqrt 2 1 414214 display tan 1 047192 1 732029 Function Concatenation Joins character strings together ASCII String Function returns the ASCII code of the character Character function returns the character whose decimal ASCII code is given Inkey pauses until a character is input from the keyboard then accepts it Instring returns the position of the Ist occurrence of y in x May begin searching at the nth position Left characters returns the left n characters Length returns the no of characters including spaces in x Middle characters returns the characters from i to the end 4 6 TABLE 4 5 STRING FUNCTIONS Format ase x chr x x inkey instr x y instr n x y left x n len x mid x i mid x i n Example a Master b Lab System display a b MasterLab System display ase a 65 display chr 65 A display continue y or n x inkey if x y then process else system end if x abedeb y p name instr x y newname instr 4 x y display name display newname 2 6 x Thanksgiving display left x 6 Thanks x Greenville ME display len x 14 x smiles display mid x 2 miles Function Format Example Readkey accepts a x readkey display Press any key to stop characte
35. 3 Displaying the Current Weight ceeeeceseeeecece 3 43 Naming a Weigh Command ceccececccceccecececs 3 44 Executing a Weigh Command eeceeecseceence 3 44 Naming a Tare Command Sartorius Balance 3 44 8 86 CONTENTS Section Page 4 THE PERL LANGUAGE ccc cece cree cece eceeeneee 4 1 ELEMENTS OF PERL cceceeveeeceeeccs TEETE 4 1 PERL Statements PEST CREE OTN Be Loe CER EES 4 1 Arguments Used in PERL Statements eeceeeee 4 2 Constants and Variables ceeeesecvevecence 4 2 APPSY Variables esis ad hace a dee mons ane e ease 4 3 Expressions eissi lence diese olay ces bse wees ees 4 3 Functions eenia i ea ed eee De eds weeds ed 4 4 PERL STATEMENTS cccccccccevcscccccsece Surses 4 7 Housekeeping Statements SiS Saisie dere was 4 11 System Control ccceccccccccesececvvcercnseesess 4 13 Device Commands ececcsseccccccccvsvcscssveese 417 Robot Control ce cece enee Sicigcew sina eadarsasees 4518 Timer Statements eccccccceevcues We eereearsnnere 4520 Co ordinated Procedures Parallel Until While 4 18 Input Output to the Monitor and Keyboard 4 24 Printing ccccccccceece E ET E T L Making Decisions within Programs cseesseecveess 4 31 Repeated Actions LOOpS esesseescsssccseesso 4 34 Input Output via RS232 Ports essssereessereesro 4 39 Using Files on Disk sec ee nee seresceseeoees 4 41 Date and T
36. 344 E 61 1 136 213 270 345 o 62 2 137 _ 214 271 346 p 63 3 140 7 215 272 347 v 64 4 141 a 216 273 350 amp 65 5 142 b 217 274 351 6 88 68 143 c 220 275 4 352 Q 67 7 144 ad 221 276 4 353 6 70 8 145 e 222 277 1 354 o 71 9 146 f 223 300 355 72 147 g 224 301 4 356 73 150 h 225 302 357 n T4 lt 151 i 226 303 F 360 75i 152 j 227 304 361 76 gt 153 k 230 305 362 2 77 154 1 231 306 363 lt 100 155 m 232 307 364 101 A 156 n 233 310 365 102 B 157 o 234 311 p 386 103 C 160 p 235 312 367 104 D 161 a 236 313 370 105 E 162 r 237 314 F 371 106 F 163 s 240 315 372 107 G 164 t 241 316 f 373 N4 110 H 165 u 242 317 374 n 111 1 166 v 243 320 375 2 112 J 167 w 244 321 7 376 113 K 170 x 245 322 377 114 L 171 y 246 a 323 400 You can embed an octal code in a string constant display Proposed 341 Test Sites will display Proposed Test Sites You can also assign the octal code to a string variable for example char_b 341 display char_b The two above statements will display the character g 8 86 redirect input fran device redirect output to device The standard input device for the MasterLab System is the keyboard of the System Controller The standard output device is the screen If you wish to have the System Controller accept input from a device connected at port com1 and you had named the port lims in the System Configuration File you could issue t
37. NSEE may terminate this License at will on thirty 30 days prior written notice to LICENSOR Within ten 10 days after termination LICENSEE shall certify in writing to LICENSOR that all copies in whole or in part in any form of the Licensed Program have been destroyed or returned to LICENSOR CONTINUED ON OTHER SIDE SOFTWARE CHANGE REQUEST General Information Name PERL version no Address Phone Check one bug enhancement ____ System Configuration Circle one IBM PC IBM XT IBM AT Clone System memory size SSK Memory allocation stack ee ee a program 2K directory KE Communication ports installed circle 1 2 3 4 5 6 ih 8 9 10 Problem or Suggestion Error message received if any Description of problem or suggested improvement Documentation included please check Listings required Program ____ PERL SCF ____ Disk copy required for reporting a directory problem otherwise optional PERL DIR ____ PERL SCF Procedures Please List Mail to Laboratory Robotics Division The Perkin Elmer Corporation 761 Main Avenue Norwalk CT 06859 0927 CONTENTS Section 1 INTRODUCTION cece ccc cee cece eee EEA ES The PERL Programming Environment teeeeees Tools Used Directly by the Programmer Tools Invisible to the Programmer eeseeeeeee The Structure of PERL Applications Programs Creating a PERL Procedure ee es
38. OT logical NOT For example ifb lt aorb gt c then if a b AND a c then 8 86 4 32 Note that logical operators can be used only with numeric variables not with strings Compare the following legal and illegal uses of logical operators Legal Megal ifn a and t b then if n a and t b then ifn a and t 1 then if n a and t 1 then Use the else portion of the if block only if action is to be taken when the expression is false that would not be taken if it were true For example if sample_wt lt 1 0 then add_solv mix_samp else dsed_sam end if ass ei pase vary or case expr The case statement provides another way of specifying alternative courses of action Use it when several different alternatives are possible depending on the value of a variable or expression As an example suppose that three different procedures could be called depending on the volume of the sam ple The following case construction specifies the alternatives ease vol sample is 10 prp_10ml is 5 prep_5ml is 1 prep_1ml end case If the value of vol sample were 10 the procedure prep_10ml would be exe cuted Otherwise the appropriate other procedure would be used 8 86 4 33 The lines which follow the ease statement must consist of the keyword is with either a variable or a constant not an expression before a colon a statement or statements on the line s following the is In the
39. RAM until it is terminated in accor dance with Article 7 0 4 0 PROPRIETARY RIGHTS AND PROTECTION 4 1 LICENSEE acknowledges and understands that nothing contained in this License shall be construed as conveying title in Licensed Program to the LICENSEE LICENSEE agrees to hold the Licensed Program in confi dence and shall not disciose the Licensed Program or part thereof without the prior written approval of LICENSOR except to its emptoyees to whom disclosure is necessary tor Use Licensee agrees not to disassemble decompile or cross compile Licensed Program Where any of LICENSOR S rights to the Licensed Program or part thereof arise under an agreement with a third party supplier such supplier shatl have the benefit of LICENSOR S rights hereunder LICENSEE acknowledges that the Licensed Program may contain certain encryptions or other devices which may prevent or detect unauthorized Use of the Licensed Pro gram Temporary Use on backup equipment may require assistance from Licensor RESPECT TO THE LICENSED PROGRAM THIS LIMITED WARRANTY GIVES LICENSEE SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS AND LICENSEE MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE 7 0 TERMINATION 7 1 If LICENSEE fails to comply witn any term or condition of this License LICENSOR may notify LICENSEE in writing of such failure If LICENSEE faiis to cure such failure within thirty 30 days of such written notice this License may be terminated LICE
40. REEN The PERL main sereen assigns functions to several of the function keys on the left side of the keyboard This section will explain the use of each one Key F1 Run F2 Edit Function of Command Runs a PERL applications procedure When you press F1 you will receive the message Please enter procedure name Type in the name and press Enter Aecesses the PERL Screen Editor which is used to write and edit procedures and information files The use of the Screen Editor is described in Section 5 of this manual 8 86 2 20 F3 Teach Accesses the Teach programs for the robot and other modules of the MasterLab System which are capable of RS232 communication These programs are used to create the commands necessary to the operation of these modules The use of the Teach programs is explained in Section 3 of this manual F4 Dir Accesses the PERL Directory which contains a list of all PERL files and procedures as well as all commands which you have taught to the system by using the Teach programs Use of the Directory is explained in Section the preceding section F6 Help Displays appropriate available help screens Note The HELP function has not yet been implemented F7 Quit Aborts PERL and returns you to DOS This is the same as the system command described under Leaving PERL Note During execution of a PERL procedure F7 changes and F8 becomes available as follows F7 Halt Stops procedure execution at the end of th
41. ROL CHARACTERS AND THEIR PERL ABBREVIATIONS ceeeeeeeeees ASH APPENDIX 4 SAMPLE PERL APPLICATION ceeeeceeeeeee A4 1 APPENDIX 5 PERL RESERVED WORDS eececcecccceee ASML REFERENCE GUIDE TO PERL APPENDIX 1 ERROR MESSAGES Invalid command Command cannot be sent to the appropriate device Invalid device name Cannot resolve Insufficient memory for this program Syntax error has occurred Internal stack overflow has occurred FOR stack overflow WHILE stack overflow UNTIL stack overflow NEXT without a corresponding FOR END WHILE without a WHILE END UNTIL without an UNTIL Invalid expression Missing THEN Missing END IF ELSE without a corresponding IF END IF without a corresponding IF FOR without a corresponaing NEXT Missing END WHILE Missing END UNTIL Too many files open Cannot open file Cannot close file File not found Error occurrea while reading from Error occurred while writing to Subscript out of range Duplicate definition found Mathematical error A parameter quantity error has occurrea APPENDIX 2 USEFUL DOS COMMANDS LEAVING PERL ACCESSING DOS When you wish to use DOS commands you must leave the PERL environment There are two ways to do this Toreturn to the DOS Operating System while keeping PERL in memory type dos ana press Enter You can then issue LOS commanas When you are ready to return to PERL type perl and press Enter The PERL screen reappears without the module
42. Repeat steps a through e positioning the robot above the last tube in the first row C in Figure 3 7 8 86 8 9 10 11 3 17 You will then be asked for three pieces of information as shown in the table below Press Enter after each response Prompt Sample Response Meaning see Figure 3 7 Number of rows 4 ENTER Number of locations from A toB Number of columns 10 ENTER Number of locations from A to C Length of tube mm 150 ENTER Length of containers in rack The information about the rack named big_tubes will be stored in the PERL Directory The robot Teach Program options menu returns Highlight Position the Gripper on the options menu Press Enter Repeat step 1 entering the following values Force to Close 4 pate Force to Hold 4 Ruben be idast amuua Force Duration 50 Press the F8 Bkup key repeatedly or press F7 Quit to return to the PERL main sereen Pipette Tip Racks You do not need to change the grip pressure or to adjust the gripper opening in order to teach a pipette rack 1 2 3 Highlight Define a Rack on the robot Teach Program options menu A prompt will ask you whether the rack to be taught is a pipette rack Type y yes The sereen shown in Figure 3 7 will appear indicating the three locations A B and C you must teach the robot and asking you for the name of the rack Type in a name for example Rack Name tips Press Enter 8 86
43. Section 4 are available to you These statements are similar to BASIC and a BASIC textbook will provide help should you need it The data files which you may accumulate on disk while using the MasterLab System can also be processed by third party software of your choice You can not access such software from PERL however To leave PERL and return to DOS type system while the PERL prompt is displayed From DOS load and use third party software as directed in the manual for that software 6 2 PLANNING THE PROCEDURE Defining the Task In general the planning stage of PERL programming consists of analyzing the task the MasterLab System is to perform and determining the individual steps in the task You need to consider What is the overall task to be performed What are the smaller tasks involved in the overall task These will each be directed by a procedure within the final procedure Important A PERL procedure may be run from within another PERL procedure simply by using its name as a statement line Thus a given procedure may function either as an independent program or as a subroutine The term procedure will be used to cover both instances What are the individual steps in the tasks and which module carries out each step These are the commands which you will need to create with the Teach Programs and use in your procedures As an example the rest of this Planning the Procedure section will take you through
44. al devices to which they are connected When you highlight Switch Outputs on the device interface options menu and press Enter the menu shown in Figure 3 11 will appear Switch Outputs Device Interface Teach Module Name Switch Command Execute Switch Command Manual Control of Switches F6 Help F7 Quit F8 Bkup F9 Up F10 Dn Figure 3 11 Switch Output Menu Manual Control of Switches The Manual Control option is used to turn switches on and off without the use of named commands 1 Highlight Manual Control of Switches on the Switeh Outputs menu and press Enter A list of the twelve switches will appear The cursor will be at switch 1 2 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the name of the switch whose setting you wish to change Press Enter 8 86 3 4 3 30 Use the up and down arrow keys or F9 and F10 to move the ON OFF indicator to the setting you need Press Enter The switch will be set as you have indicated You may proceed to set another switch or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Switch Outputs menu Name Switch Command This option allows you to name a command which sets a switch Every time the command is executed the switch will go to the desired setting 1 2 3 4 5 Highlight Name Switch Command on the Switch Outputs menu Press Enter A list of the twelve switches will appear at the left of the seree
45. an use and a list of commands you must create before you ean program the new procedures you need CREATING THE PROCEDURE Teaching New Commands Use the robot Teach Program and the syringe Teach Program to create the new commands you have listed which you will need in your procedure Detailed instructions for using the Teach Programs are in Section 3 of this manual Writing Procedures You will write each PERL procedure as an independent program by means of the PERL Editor Be sure you familiarize yourself with the use of the Editor by carrying out the procedure in Section 5 of this manual Once you have used the Teach Programs to create all the commands you will need for your overall procedure write your new procedures as follows 1 2 3 4 5 From the PERL main menu press the F2 Edit function key to enter the Editor If the Edit Commands menu is not displayed press F7 If the compiler is not on highlight compiler on in the menu and press Enter Type the first line of the procedure which should be a procedure statement procedure fill_syr Note that the name given to the procedure does not exceed 8 characters Type the commands needed in your procedure as you planned Put one command on each line pressing Enter after each The last line of the fill_syr procedure should be end procedure The procedure should now be similar to the following procedure fill_syr sample i fill 1 8 solvnt fi
46. ans Cotangent of x radians Exponent returns e to the xth power Function expl0 x int x Log x 1ogl0 x sin x sqrt x tan x STRING FUNCTIONS For examples of these functions see pages 4 6 and 4 7 of this manual Function asc x chr x x inkey instr x y Definition Concatenate strings ASCI code for first character of x Character with ASCII code x Pauses until a character is input from the keyboard then assigns it to x instr n x y x The position of the 1st occurrence of y in x May begin searching at the nth position Function left x n len x mid x i mid x i n x readkey right x n str x val x Definition Exponent to base 10 returns 10 to the xth power Integer part of x x will be truneated to round use int x 0 5 Natural logarithm of x Logarithm to base 10 of x Sine of x radians Square root of x Tangent of x radians Definition The left n characters in x Length of string x n characters beginning at position i in x Accepts a character input from the keyboard but does not pause if none is input The rightmost n characters in x String constrant represent ing the numeric value x Numeric value of string x PERL STATEMENTS The number at the end of each definition is the page where you will find detailed instructions for using the stat
47. ar in format to a display statement which has a character constant in quotation marks followed by a semicolon then a variable name Input statements like display statements can also use a comma instead of a semicolon As shown the statement will cause the system to query Total number of samples and wait for a response If you use a comma instead of a semicolon you suppress the question mark input Total number of samples num_samples will produce Total number of samples display octal display variable The entire IBM PC character set is available to you from PERL You ean display Greek letters double lines arrows and many other non keyboard characters Each character in the set is identified by an octal number as shown in Table 4 6 To access a character use the symbol followed by the octal identifier all surrounded by quotation marks For example display 101 will display the character A 8 86 4 27 TABLE 4 6 THE IBM PC CHARACTERS AND THEIR OCTAL CODES 41 o 116 N 173 250 4 325 p 42 o 117 0 174 251 326 43 8 120 P 175 252 327 44 3 121 Q 176 7 253 x 330 45 x 122 R 177 254 331 46 amp 123 S 200 255 332 47 124 T 201 256 333 50 125 U 202 257 gt 334 51 126 V 203 260 ii 335 52 127 W 204 261 336 53 130 X 205 262 337 54 131 Y 206 263 340 a 55 132 Z 207 264 341 R 56 133 210 265 342 r 57 134 211 266 343 v 60 0 135 212 267 4
48. atus of the Inputs on the Inputs menu Press Enter A list of the twelve input switches will appear Beside each the word ON appears if the input is on At the bottom of the screen is the message Please Press the ENTER Key to Continue 2 When you are ready to return to the Input options menu press ENTER Using the AC Outlets Program The device interface has two AC outlets to which external devices can be connected These devices are turned on and off by device interface commands created with the AC Outlets portion of the Teach Program The mixer for example is such a device When you highlight A C Outlets on the device interface options menu and press Enter the menu shown in Figure 3 13 will appear Manual Control of A C Outlets You can use the Manual Control option to turn an outlet on or off without using a named command 1 Highlight Manual Control of A C Outlets on the A C Outlets menu and press Enter A list of the outlets will appear The cursor will be at outlet 1 2 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the name of the outlet whose setting you wish to change Press Enter 3 Use the up and down arrow keys or F9 and F10 to move the ON OFF indicator to the setting you need for your command 8 86 4 3 34 i A C Outlets Device Interface Teach Module Name A C Outlet Command Execute A C Outlet Command Manual Control of A C Outlets F6 Help
49. ay month or time to be output to the screen The following procedures run at noon on December 20 1985 demonstrate the formats in which the time statements output data a date display a 12 20 1985 b day display b Friday e time display e 12 00 00 d month display d December These statements are useful for dating files created with PERL procedures For example after creating a file called newdata use the statements a date b time append a to newdata append b to newdata to add the date and time of creation to the file on disk 8 86 5 THE PERL EDITOR Section Page 5 THE PERL EDITOR cc cece ccc ee rec cccercccerenessccees 5 1 INTRODUCTION cccccececccccccececsnnsccnessececcs 5 1 EDITOR COMMANDS esesssessososesesesoosecseceosos 5 1 Commands on the Editor Menu esesesesececooooo 5 2 Commands Controlled by Keyboard Keys esesseees 5 3 PROGRAMMING PROCEDURES cccevecceccccceereee 5 4 Entering the Editor sseseesevosssecssoseseeeee 5 4 Editing a Procedure ssessesececosecoessoseceeso 5 5 Editing a Text File s sssesssessssocosocsoeccooeo 5 7 Leaving the Editor sessessesossoesesocseeeoseo 5 8 5 THE PERL EDITOR INTRODUCTION You will write your PERL applications programs called procedures using the PERL Editor a full sereen editor which you can access from PERL by means of the F2 function key of the System Controller You can use the Editor to create a
50. be in the first row C in Figure 3 7 You will then be asked for three pieces of information as shown in the table below Press Enter after each response Prompt Sample Response Meaning see Figure 3 7 Number of rows 4 ENTER Number of locations from A to B Number of columns 10 ENTER Number of locations from A to C Length of tube mm 150 ENTER Length of pipette tips 8 86 8 The information about the rack named tips will be stored in the PERL 3 19 Directory The robot Teach Program options menu returns Press the F8 Bkup key repeatedly or press F7 Quit to return to the PERL main screen Teaching Stacks of Items A stack of items which the robot must pick up individually may be taught as a vertical rack The rack has only one row and as many columns as there are items in the stack 96 well plates for example constitute such a stack 1 2 Before you select Define a Rack on the options menu you must first set the grip pressure to a low value as follows a b e d Highlight Position the Gripper on the options menu Press Enter The gripper menu will appear Highlight Set the Grip Pressure on the gripper menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter three parameters Force to Close 0 7 Force to Hold 0 7 Force Duration 0 99 Type a value for each parameter pressing Enter after each one The recommended values are Force to Close 3 Force to Hold 0 Fo
51. ble whose value is the file name This is left rem as an exercise for the reader rem procedure freadinp clear rem rem Set the loop condition so that the procedure will loop in the WHILE loop rem until a null is read from the file When a null is read then exit rem from the loop ren ans while ans o gt read ans from testfile display ans end while A4 4 rem rem A null has been read so close the file rem close testfile rem rem Now that the file is closed allow the user to view the screen for as rem long as they like This is accomplished by prompting the user for rem input The input in this case any key signifies the user s desire to rem continue with the procedure In our example the procedure performs an rem implicit return to the procedure that invoked it rem display display Press a key to continue a inkey end procedure fwritout rem rem This procedure prompts the user for string data and then places it on disk rem The disk file name is hardcoded and it can be replaced with a string var rem iable whose value is the file name rem procedure fwritout clear rem rem Set the condition for looping through the WHILE loop until a null is rem entered by the user A null is entered by pressing the RETURN key at the rem prompt The null is stored in the disk file rem ans o while ans lt gt input Enter string to place on disk ans write a
52. brings the sample tube to the dispensing stand The syringe draws in 1 8 ml of solvent and 0 1 ml of air The test tube of sample is raised around the dispensing probe The syringe draws in 0 2 ml of sample The robot returns the test tube of sample to the rack ii lth ed ta In procedures involving the syringe it is advisable to keep the syringe itself and its valves filled with solvent Other fluids should be drawn into the dispensing tube and then dispensed from that same tube without having them pass through the valve or into the syringe Different fluids should be separated in the tubing by drawing in a bubble of air between them See Figure 6 1 Filling Air Tube Tube Solvent Bubble Sample N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N i KSSS ASSESS Wi a ay Figure 6 1 Valve positions during Syringe Operation In programming steps 1 and 6 assume that the robot Teach Program module called Define a Rack would have been used when the test tube rack was first installed in the system See Section 3 of this manual If the rack was named sample the robot can be directed to get a tube from the rack by using the command sample i where i is the number of the location of a particular tube in the rack Similarly returning the tube to the rack is accomplished by the command sample i back To program the rest of fill_syr you will need the following commands to
53. cedure name and press Enter The following features are available to you from the DCP Section in Feature which Described pre defined commands 2 sereen editing commands not part of the PERL Editor commands controlled by function keys PERL Directory Teach Programs PERL Editor execution of user defined commands bh C1 to bd bo DS PRE DEFINED COMMANDS The commands described in this section may be issued from the keyboard as described above or they may be used in PERL applications programs where appropriate Command Function Example DEVICE COMMANDS init Initializes specifie devices by init robot_1 the name entered in CONFIG use Specifies by name the device to be use robot_2 used when there are multiple devices of the same type in the system display Displays the configurations for display devices devices all devices in the System Configuration File From this display press F8 Backup to return to the main PERL screen 8 86 DIRECTORY COMMANDS load Read Directory from disk This causes any new Directory entries in memory to be lost The Directory which is loaded is automatically backed up in the file PERLDIR BAK save Write Directory to disk This saves any additions to the Directory which are in memory placing them in the file PERL DIR load save in i a 1 0 COMMANDS redirect Changes the standard input or output device Default input device is the keyboard Default output
54. cified amount relative to its present position Important Be sure that the destination you specify with up down or relative is within the work envelope of the robot If you attempt to move the robot to a destination it cannot reach it will reset the grippers will open releasing any container being grasped Up and down move the robot in the Z direction only retaining the eurrent X and Y coordinates and the pitch and roll The distance is in millimeters and can be either a constant or a variable For example up 5 moves the robot up 5 millimeters from its present position down b moves the robot down b millimeters The distance argument can be either positive or negative down 4 has the same meaning as up 4 8 86 4 19 If you want the x and y coordinates or the pitch and roll to change use the relative statement The syntax rules for this command are as follows The relative changes in x y and z are in millimeters changes in wrist pitch and roll are in degrees Either constants or variables are allowed If you do not want to change all the coordinates use zeros for the fields which will not change for example relative 0 5 0 0 10 You must include all the coordinates to the left of the one s you want to change You can drop the ones to the right For example relative 0 6 would move the robot 6 millimeters in the y direction The commas separating the fields are requi
55. come from the system configuration file where you have assigned each module a name e g robot_1 robot_artful robot_ge Choose the desired robot by highlighting its name and pressing Enter The robot Teach Program options menu will then appear Copyright c 1985 Robot Teach Module Perkin Elmer Corporation Define a Rack Move the Robot Move to a Position Name a Position Position the Gripper F6 Help F7 Quit F8 Bkup F9 Up F10 Dn Figure 3 2 Robot Teach Program Options The Robot Teach Program Options Menu Each of the procedures which the robot performs can be reduced to a series of commands Each command specifies one of three kinds of conditions hand locations gripper positions locations in a test tube or vial rack with which the robot is to interact 8 86 The options menu allows you to choose which of these conditions is to be 3 5 specified in your new command It lists five choices move the robot name a position move to a position position the gripper 5 define a rack use the Teach Pendant to move the robot along the X Y and Z axes to the desired position assign a name to the robot s present position You may change the robot s position from within this option before assigning a name move the robot to a previously named position by typing in the position name open or close the grippers name their position and adjust the force with which they grip an object describ
56. computer reads this file each time PERL is loaded into memory and it sends the appropriate initialization commands Once your system has been installed you need not use the System Configuration Utility again unless you add delete or move a device In that case change the system configuration file Your programs do not need to be changed since all device communication is based on the system configuration file Teach Programs are interactive programs that allow you to give names to various positions actions and quantities which will be needed in your laboratory In teaching the robot for example you use the Teach Pendant provided with the robot to move it to the desired position You then use the Teach Program to name the position Both the name and the corresponding position are stored on disk ready to be used as commands in PERL procedures Note that you do not have to calculate the position the position parameters are determined by the system If you change a location later you can use the Teach Program to change the stored parameters You need make no changes in PERL procedures The PERL Editor is used to create and edit PERL procedures It is a full screen editor which takes advantage of the function keys and other special keyboard keys available on the System Controller IBM PC As a result it is both powerful and easy to use The completed procedure is automatically compiled when you save it Tools Invisible to the Programme
57. conds wait for timer 1 mid_dispenser_2 mid_dispenser_1 under_disp sample i back next i end procedure Note that you can define the value of syr_1_vol by other expressions in other procedures but the system will always interpret it as referring to a syringe plunger position Commands taught by the device interface Teach Program turn the mixer on and off One of the PERL software timers see Section 4B 2 times the duration of mixing The subroutine below also assumes that you used the Define a Rack option of the robot Teach Program to teach the robot that the mixer is a rack named mixer having 1 column and 1 row This allows you to use the rack commands mixer 1 and mixer 1 back Figure 6 3 Mixing Crimping 6 15 procedure mix_samp mixer 1 back turn_on_mixer set fimer 1 for 15 seconds wait for timer 1 turn_off_mixer mixer 1 end procedure When the robot is to use the erimper it first gets a loosely capped vial from the vial rack and takes it to the vacuum device on the crimper The vacuum removes the cap and retains it while the robot dispenses a sample into the vial The robot then retrieves the cap from the vacuum and places the vial and the cap in the crimping jaws for crimping An input to the device interface from the crimper lets the device interface test whether the vacuum is on If the vacuum does not turn on you can program an alarm to sound In the following procedure pros_sam stands for ot
58. cutes the tasks in a batch file called data bat procedure batch deliver dos data call data bat to acquire data reduce data copy data to new directory cleanup end procedure listing of data bat basic acquire reduce copy newdata data july15 dat 8 86 systen The dos and system commands both return control to the operating system DOS They differ in that system aborts PERL while dos leaves PERL in memory stop suspend If you put suspend in your procedure execution will halt at that point as if you had pressed F7 Halt You can then continue execution by pressing F8 continue or you can abort the program by pressing F7 A stop statement in the procedure aborts execution and returns you to the PERL Direct Command Processor It is equivalent to pressing F7 twice in succession load save The PERL Directory stores in the file PERL DIR all commands you create with the Teach Programs The load command tells the system to read PERL DIR into memory Any new Directory entries presently in memory will be lost The system automatically makes a backup file PERLDIR BAK of the Directory being loaded To write the Directory presently in memory to disk use save The system will write the Directory to PERL DIR 8 86 The library command gives you a way to shorten the run time devoted to waiting for subprocedures to load as they are needed Use it as described below 1 2 3 Use
59. d all your procedures write the main procedure as follows 1 From the PERL main menu press the F2 Edit function key to enter the Editor If the Edit Commands menu is not displayed press F7 2 If the compiler is not on highlight compiler on in the menu and press Enter 3 Type the first line of the procedure which should be a procedure statement procedure ge prep 4 Type the commands and procedure names needed in your procedure as you planned Put one command on each line pressing Enter after each 5 The last line of ge_prep should be end procedure The procedure at this stage should be similar to the following procedure ge_prep fill_syr disp_liq mix_samp aliquot park_cap disp_liq ermp_vil autosam end procedure 6 Look over the procedure for places where BASIC like statements from Section 4 are needed The procedure above as it stands would only perform the procedure once You must insert a for next loop to repeat the procedure for the number of samples you have 40 for example 7 Insert appropriate rem statements to identify the function of the procedure and to explain any ambiguous statements The final procedure will be similar to the following 6 9 procedure ge_prep rem Dilutes 0 2 ml sample with 1 8 ml solvent rem Takes 1 ml aliquot to autosampler rem for i 1 to 40 fill_syr disp_liq mix_samp aliquot park_cap disp_liq ermp_vil autosam next i end procedure 8 Save
60. d for standard MasterLab System modules If the type of module you are adding was listed on the Config Add a Module menu proceed to step 15 If you entered All Other Modules at step 1 refer to the manual provided with the module to determine its communications requirements The system prompts for the Initialization Sequence The initialization sequence is the action or series of actions that sets the module to its starting position It can also request a response from the module before initialization proceeds If a response is required from the module the following command is included xxx where xxx is the required response You may enter any ASCII character as part of an initialization sequence For example if the initialization were for the System Controller to query Hello how are you and the module to return I am fine the initialization sequence would be Hello lt gt how are you lt gt I am fine The angle brackets around the first comma and question mark indicate that they are included in the query not part of a command It would be equally correct to use lt Hello how are you gt I am fine Angle brackets are also used with an ASCII command such as lt CR gt carriage return See the table of ASCII and PERL abbreviations for control characters found in Appendix 3 of this manual 8 86 13 14 15 Typical Initialization Sequences for two modules are shown below Since these are standard mod
61. e for and print statements The arguments may be either constants variables expressions or functions of any of these Constants and Variables PERL uses either numeric or character constants The numeric constants may be either real having a decimal point and possibly a decimal part or they may be integer having no decimal point Variables to which the system assigns values during procedure execution are of the same types as constants Variables have names which may contain up to 16 characters none of which may be spaces Character vari able names end with a dollar sign integer variable names end with a per cent sign If you do not specify character or integer data type PERL assumes that the variable is of real data type Table 4 1 gives examples of the types of variables and constants PERL supports TABLE 4 1 DATA TYPES IN PERL Examples Examples Type of Constants of Variables Numeric Real 2 4 40 10 0 ml_of_standard Integer 3 74 num_of_samples Character newstuff prodname Array Variables Variables of the same type may be groupea together and assignea the same variable name Such a grouping 1s cailea an array The variables in the array are distinguished from each other by a subscript in parentheses follow ing the name For example the weights of 10 samples coula be placed in an array called sampwt The indiviaual weights woula be sampwt 1 sampwt 2 ete A aim aimension statement must always preceae t
62. e present line F8 Continue Resumes previously halted procedure beginning at the next line THE PERL DIRECTORY PERL will store in the PERL Directory the file PERL DIR all the commands that you create with the Teach Programs When you load PERL the System Controller reads this file into memory so that all the commands you have created are available The computer memory space allocated to the Directory is set in the batch file PERL BAT If your Directory becomes larger than the allocated memory you will receive a sereen message You can then increase the Directory space as described in Default Conditions at Start up earlier in this section Each time you attempt to save your Directory on disk PERL will verify that the disk contains enough free space If you receive a message that there is insufficient space insert another disk into the drive and save the Directory again 8 86 2 21 The Directory functions not only as the repository for the commands you create You can also make use of it directly in two ways asa reference tool in which you can check on the names you have given to commands asa means by which you can execute commands without having to type them 1 To see the PERL Directory press F4 Dir from the PERL main screen DCP The Module Command Directory main sereen will appear It lists the types of modules you have connected to your system 2 Use the arrow keys or F9 and F10 to highlight the
63. e a Gripper Position 1 Highlight Name a Gripper Position and press Enter The screen will prompt you Gripper Position Name 2 Type in the desired name up to 16 characters none of which may be spaces Press Enter The name will be stored and you will be returned to the gripper menu 3 Choose another gripper option or press F8 Bkup to return to the robot Teach Program options menu After you have set up and named a gripper position appropriate for certain containers for example soft_touch use that command to set the grippers at the beginning of every applications program which involves those containers Name a Gripper Position Read The hand sense facility assigns a value to the gripper opening size The Name a Gripper Position Read option allows you to name a command which will retrieve this value In a PERL procedure the value is assigned to a variable which can be real integer or string Whatever the variable type the variable will be in a decimal representation with values from 0 to 255 The procedure below uses the command hand_opn to read the gripper position The value of the opening is assigned to the variable x If x is less than 10 there is no test tube in the grippers In that case procedure get_tube calls itself to get the next tube procedure get_tube sample samno tget tube from rack named sample x hand_opn eommand to read gripper opening if x lt 10 then samno samno 1 ge
64. e a test tube pipette tip or other raek so that the robot will be able to interact with every location in it The pages which follow describe each of these options in detail Moving the Robot The Move the Robot option allows you to use the Teach Pendant to move the robot to a desired position You can then name the position if you wish using the Name a Position option However if naming is your intention it is more efficient to move the robot from within the Name a Position option 1 Highlight Move the Robot on the robot Teach Program options menu Press Enter The following messages will appear on the sereen Position the Robot with the Teaching Pendant Press the ENTER Key to Compute X Y Z Coordinates 2 Turn on the Teach Pendant using the ON OFF switch on the top See Figure 3 3 3 Use the six X Y and Z touch pad keys in the top three rows of the right column to move the robot into the desired position Figure 3 4 indicates the direction of motion initiated by X Y and Z keys Turn off the Teach Pendant 8 86 3 6 ON OFF Switeh MOVE MASTER RM 501 TEACHING BOX Be P pa ie FREER EEE EEE Open Grippers Figure 3 3 The Teach Pendant OY X Figure 3 4 Robot Motion in X Y and Z Directions 8 86 4 5 3 7 Press Enter The X Y and Z coordinates of the position will appear in the upper right side of the sereen When you have comple
65. e below the item currently highlighted Adding a Module Every module that is installed with your MasterLab System or is added to the system later must be identified in the system configuration file This enables the System Controller to communicate with the module Using Config to add a module for example a printer or a syringe to the MasterLab System sets the communications parameters associated with the new module Either the system sets the parameters by default or you select them 8 86 2 6 The following is a general procedure for adding a module to the system The procedure for adding a robot to your MasterLab System is deseribed in Section 3 of the MasterLab System Instructions You will find the procedure for adding each accessory module in the manual provided with the module To add a module to the system proceed as follows 1 2 3 Use the Up F9 and Dn F10 function keys or the up and down arrow keys to highlight the option labeled Add a Module and press the Enter key The display now lists categories of modules which can be added to the system The choices are Robot Printer Syringe Balance Bar Code Reader Device Interface Capping Station All Other Modules Highlight the type of module you wish to add and press the Enter key Note If the module is a syringe the system will list the available models 9030 9040 9050 9060 Highlight the model number of the syringe you are adding a
66. ecceccccccecceses Naming a Valve Command cccccccccscccecsccvecs Naming a Syringe Variable ccccesccccccsseccecs THE DEVICE INTERFACE TEACH PROGRAM eceeees Accessing the Device Interface Teach Program Using the Switch Outputs Program ssceceeeceecee Using the Inputs Program ecccccsccvcccvcecccecs Using the AC Outlets Program cceccessccecceves Using the Alarm Program eesccecccsccescecccencs Using the Differences Program seeeccccaccees Using the Input Controlled Actions Program THE BALANCE TEACH PROGRAM ceeeccccccecccces Accessing the Balance Teach Program seeseeees Displaying the Current Weight cecsccccccccece Naming a Weigh Command ccecececcsecsccccece Executing a Weigh Command ccccccccccscceces Naming a Tare Command Sartorius Balance Page 3 1 3 4 3 5 3 7 3 8 3 8 3 12 3 21 3 22 3 23 3 24 3 24 3 25 3 26 3 27 3 28 3 29 3 31 3 33 3 35 3 37 3 40 3 42 3 43 3 43 3 44 3 44 3 44 3 THE TEACH PROGRAMS INTRODUCTION The feature which distinguishes PERL from other software languages is its ability to acquire new commands Using the PERL Teach Programs you can create commands for later use in applications programs You can tailor these commands to the particular sample preparation tasks being carried out in your laboratory PERL s ability to direct external devices to perform a variety of tasks is one reason why it i
67. ed to a single port Thus you do not need to use the use command with syringes However if you change the module name of your syringe the commands may not function properly Input Position Output Position Filling Dispensing Filling Dispensing Port Port Port Port Figure 3 8 Syringe Valve Positions Front View Accessing the Syringe Teach Program 1 From the PERL main menu press the F3 Teach function key The Teach Program selection menu shown in Figure 3 1 will appear It lists the kinds of modules for which Teach Programs are available 2 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn keys to highlight Syringe and press Enter The next screen which appears will list by name the syringes which are installed in your system This information comes from the system configuration file where you have assigned each syringe a name e g syringe_1 syringe_gc 3 Choose the desired syringe by highlighting its name and pressing Enter The next menu which appears lists five options Execute Syringe Command Name Syringe Command Name Syringe Variable Name Valve Command Setup Syringe Parameters 8 86 3 23 The sections which follow will describe each of these options in the order in which they would usually be used Setting Up Syringe Parameters Before you can name or execute a syringe command you must establish the parameters the command is to specify 1 Highlight Setup Syringe Parameters on the options
68. ed to turn switches on and off without the use of named commands 1 Highlight Manual Control of Input Controlled Action on the Input Controlled Actions menu and press Enter A list of the two AC outlets the alarm and the twelve switch outputs will appear The cursor will be at AC outlet 1 2 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the name of the switch whose setting you wish to change Press Enter 8 86 3 41 A 3 Use the up and down arrow keys or F9 and F10 to move the ON OFF indicator for AC outlets and alarm or the OPEN CLOSE indicator for switch outputs to the setting you need 4 Press Enter The switch will be set as you have indicated You may proceed to set another switch or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Input Controlled Actions menu Name Input Controlled Action Command This option allows you to name a command which sets a switch in response to a specified condition of an input You must select five conditions before you can name the command 1 the particular input whose condition will control the action 2 the input state which will trigger the action whether the value is to be high or low 3 the switch which is to be acted upon an AC outlet the alarm or an output switch 4 whether the switch is to be turned ON or OFF 5 whether PERL is to wait for the action to be completed before continuing with the rest of the procedu
69. ee eens me SP RKHRG OW EDS ORES ERZE norana say OOK HERE RS SERIININ Tnn n E EEEE ED Best ases x SISSSLLIIG 2S procedure name 2223 2s526i22 SPEAK EET DANE ROMER MEME DED reece ere etter meee sc rcaveetasamesenann SIITONEN gk g gada id Stet tthe e ene eer esse peoced ee er ere nnn d RE REAR Tee ee we eA eR er es cic ae ae ee ores TERRE EKER Hee Coe Every PERL applications program and every subroutine within it is a pro cedure which the system is to follow Each such procedure begins with a procedure statement which names it procedure uv procedure weigh procedure mix You can use the procedure name as a line in other procedures telling the system to temporarily branch to the named procedure follow it as a subrou tine then return to the original procedure For example the line weigh would cause the system to execute the procedure which begins procedure weigh The end procedure statement signals the last line in a procedure or sub routine No procedure name need be given the system assumes that the statement refers to the last previous procedure statement rem It is good programming practice to insert in the procedure comment lines which indicate what the procedure is supposed to be doing at that point These are called remarks or rem statements For example rem subroutine positions sample tube above mixer rem if error detected prints message rem _ v3 is the concentrat
70. ement Function Definition Causes initialization of the device named 4 17 init device inkey Pauses to accept a charac ter input from the key board 4 28 input prompt variable Pauses until a variable is input from the keyboard 4 25 is See case 4 32 Loads a previously created file containing all the sub procedures used in a main procedure 4 15 library link procedure name Links all the subprocedures used in a main procedure 2 18 Reads the PERL Directory from disk and makes a backup copy in the file PERL BAK 4 14 log destination Creates a file on disk which will contain every thing sent to the screen 4 16 months Outputs the present month to the screen or appends it toa file 4 43 Last line of a program loop which begins with for 4 34 next var open Opens the robot grippers 4 18 output See redirect 4 28 Returns control to the executing procedure after use of the dos command 4 13 perl print Sends subsequent output to the printer 4 30 print screen Outputs the entire present contents of the screen to the printer 4 30 Function Definition procedure name Begins every procedure and subroutine 4 11 read var from filename Read the next record from the file into memory The filename argument may be an expression 4 40 Reads a character from the keyboard buffer if a key has been pressed 4 29
71. enu F8 Bkup Method for leaving the Editor F9 Insert Line Creates a blank line in the text above the present cursor location in which additional text can be written F10 Delete Line Deletes the line of text in which the cursor is residing 8 86 Left Arrow Right Arrow Up Arrow Down Arrow Home End PgUp PgDn Del Ins Tab Back Arrow 5 4 Moves cursor to the left Moves cursor to the right Moves cursor up Moves cursor down Moves cursor to the beginning of the line of text Moves cursor one space to the right of the last character on the line Brings up the previous page of text Brings up the next page of text Deletes the character at the present cursor position All characters to the right of the cursor move one place to the left Allows characters to be inserted ahead of the cursor Press the key again to return to normal operation Moves cursor to the next tab stop Tabs are set every 8 spaces Spaces rather than tab characters will be used in the text Backspace key Moves cursor to the previous character PROGRAMMING A PROCEDURE Accessing the Editor There are four possible reasons for using the Editor it is used either to create a new file or to edit an existing one and the file may be either a procedure or a text file Your intended purpose affects the way in which you enter the Editor To create a new file either a procedure or a text file Press F2 Cheek the di
72. er opening When you first highlight the Position the Gripper option and press Enter a menu appears which offers the following choices Move the Gripper open or close the grippers to the appropriate width Name a Gripper Position assign a name to the present position of the grippers Name a Gripper Position Read Retrieve the value of the present gripper opening 8 86 Set the Grip Pressure set the pressure parameters see below if they have not previously been set appropriately for the present container being gripped e g a 12mm test tube The default pressure is full open and full close Name the Grip Pressure assign a name to the present grip pressure You will usually set the grip pressure first if necessary and name it Then move the grippers to the opening width you need and name their position Finally you can name a command to read the present gripper opening value Set the Grip Pressure 1 2 Highlight Set the Grip Pressure and press Enter You will be prompted to enter three parameters Force to Close 0 7 Force to Hold 0 7 Force Duration 0 99 The Force Duration is in hundredths of a second The Force to Close specifies an initial target current The grippers close until that current is reached or until the duration time has elapsed then the current changes to the holding current The longer the time and the higher the closing current the greater the closing force The defa
73. er the name of your robot 5 Type the name your robot was given in your system configuration file and press Enter 6 If you have not inserted the disk with the ROBOT 999 file the sereen will prompt you to do so When the disk is in place press Enter The screen will ask you to identify the version of PERL you used to make your directory i 7 8 9 10 11 Highlight either PERL Directory 1 50 or PERL Directory 1 58 Press Enter The sereen will ask Do you have syringe commands y n Type y if you have syringe commands in your directory type n if you do not If you answered yes the screen will prompt you to enter the name of the syringe Type the name given to the syringe in your system configuration file Press Enter Important If you have more than one syringe you will lose some commands when the directory is translated To minimize the number lost give the name of the syringe for which you have the most commands The screen will list the model numbers of the available syringes Highlight the model number of the syringe you named in step 9 Press Enter If you have not inserted the disk with the PERL DIR file the sereen will prompt you to do so When the disk is in place press Enter The system will now execute the conversion to PERL version 1 60 as follows It creates a new PERL DIR file which contains your commands in a form compatible with PERL version 1 60 It places you
74. esesee ALT Robot Control sssecsccccccccccccccccccccscesese 4 18 Timer Statements cccccccccccccccccecccceccssces 4 20 Co ordinated Procedures Parallel Until While 4 18 Input Output to the Monitor and Keyboard 4 24 Printing eeseoseesesesososessosocosesese 4 30 Making Decisions within Programs eseececesese 4 31 Repeated Actions Loops ccceececccccceccecenes 4 34 Input Output via RS232 Ports sesssessssssseces 4 39 Using Files on Disk cccccccccccccsccsccccccccees 4 41 Date and Time Statements ccceencccccsees 4 44 4 THE PERL LANGUAGE ELEMENTS OF PERL PERL Statements A program in PERL called a procedure consists of a series of one line statements As with any program the statements constitute a set of com mands which the system follows in order The following are typical PERL statements use robot_2 set timer 1 for 10 seconds get_sample_ tube display All samples complete The statements are of four general types Statements with syntax similar to the BASIC language which control the flow of the program Such statements as if then input or for next will be familiar if you know BASIC If you do not you will find that the simple English words used will make the meaning easy to grasp although you may wish to consult a BASIC textbook A good introductory text is BASIC a Self Teaching Guide by Robert Albrecht Leroy Finkel and Jerald Brown published b
75. eturns to the DCP 4 14 wait for timer number suspend Halts procedure execution Wait for the time set on the until you either continue specified timer to elapse F8 or abort F7 4 14 4 20 Returns control to the while condition statements end operating system aborts while PERL 4 14 system Carry out the statements as long as the condition is true 4 22 See if 4 31 times Outputs the present time of write var to filename day to the screen or appends Places the variable in the new it toa file 4 43 sequential file named The filename argument may be an timer See set timer 4 20 expression 4 40 to See for 4 34 Signals a comment appended to a line See rem 4 12 until condition statements end i code for character pate Carry out the statements until SE the condition is true 4 22 Accesses the IBM PC character set 4 26 RELATIONAL AND LOGICAL OPERATORS ARITHMETIC OPERATORS Operator Operation equal to Operation Operator Expression Addition atb lt gt not equal to lt less than Subtraction a b Multiplication a b less than or equal to uiti greater than Division a b greater than or equal to Saulis a b logical AND egation a logical OR logical NOT
76. fferent purpose dim data 50 for i 1 to 10 read data i from yourfile next i rewind yourfile press_da for i 1 to 50 read data i from yourfile next i close yourfile Note that because PERL files are sequential you can not read just the one record in which you may be interested To read the twenty fifth record for example you must read records 1 through 25 8 86 4 43 week eee oat 4 e On many occasions you as programmer will not know how many records a file contains You therefore will not be able to specify how many records are to be read The End of File function eof is provided to deal with that situation In the following procedure a very large number of records is specified After each is read the procedure checks to see if it is the last in the file When the last record is reached a break statement transfers control out of the loop dim data 200 for i 1 to 200 read data i from datafile if eof datafile 1 then num_data i display File contains i records break end if next i for i 1 to num_data press_da next i The function eof is equal to 0 when there are records remaining to be processed eof equals 1 at the end Thus you could also process records in a while or until block until eof a 1 or while eof myfile 0 8 86 4 44 Date and Time Statements The date day month and time statements cause the present date d
77. file PERL SCF on the disk in drive B Load PERL as described in Loading PERL below Commands you create with PERL will be filed on disk B in PERL DIR To create additional data disks after you have a System Configuration File and a Directory of commands proceed as follows a With the DOS prompt A gt displayed place a previous data disk in drive A and a new formatted disk in drive B 8 86 2 4 b Copy the files you will need onto the new data disk by typing the following series of commands Press Enter after each command copy HOM b copy PERL SCF b copy PERL DIR b c Load PERL as described in Loading PERL below CREATING THE SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FILE Introduction Before you can operate the MasterLab System you must configure the software for the particular modules you have in your system CONFIG is an interactive program which allows you to create a file PERL SCF that identifies the communication requirements of the modules included in your system You can identify the following Accessory modules in the system Port location of each module Initialization parameters for each module Communication protocol for each module The system reads the system configuration file each time you load PERL into memory This results in the initialization of the communication ports on the IBM PC and of the modules on the system Once the MasterLab System has been installed you need not use CONFIG agai
78. g sequential file named The filename argument may be an expression 4 40 See define 4 39 Transfers control out of a loop Control goes to the next statement immedi ately following the loop in which the break occurs 4 37 case expr is const statement default statement end case Specifies which of several actions will be taken de pending on the value of the expression 4 32 clear Erases the monitor screen 4 24 close Closes the robot grippers 4 18 close filename Closes the sequential file specified The filename argument may be an expression 4 40 continuous robot positions end continuous Moves the robot through the specified positions without stopping 4 19 cursor h line no v column no Moves the cursor to the specified location on the monitor sereen Line and column numbers may be expressions 4 24 Outputs the date to the screen or appends it to a file 4 43 Outputs the day of the week to the screen or appends it to a file 4 43 Function Definition default See case 4 32 define var as port name Establishes the buffer var to contain the serial input output of the named port 4 39 devices See display devices 4 17 Gim var i Allocates memory for the array var i and specifies that i is its largest subscript A variable may have up to three dimensions 4 36 display desired output Specifies and formats
79. h indicates how many times the action is to be repeated It ends with a next state ment In the following example the variable i is used simply as a counter its value is increased by 1 each time the loop is executed until i equals 5 Then the statement following the loop is executed fori 1 to5 display Happy next i display Birthday The output generated by this program would be Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Birthday The value of the counter variable can also be used within the body of the loop The following procedure would display the numbers from 1 to 100 procedure a_loop for a 1 to 100 display a next a end procedure If you want to increment the counter variable by more than one or to use negative increments use the optional step argument 8 86 4 35 procedure countdn display Countdown for i 10 to 0 step 1 display i next i display BLAST OFF end procedure The above procedure would produce the following display Countdown 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 B LAST OFF You may nest one for next loop inside another The following program will display the multiplication tables up to the twelfth The display state ment causes the program to skip a line between successive tables procedure mult for i 1 to 12 for j 1 to 12 display i Wet j My i j next j display next i end procedure Note that the for j statement comes after the for i and the next j co
80. h the extension LNK appended to the filename DATE AND TIME COMMANDS date Displays date date day Displays the day of the week day month Displays the month month time Displays time time 8 86 2 19 THE DCP SCREEN EDITOR The screen editor embedded in the DCP makes use of the editing keys of the System Controller IBM PC It allows you to edit command lines and to move the cursor anywhere on the screen You may also return to a previously issued command and execute it again simply move the cursor to the end of the command line and press Enter The functions of the editing keys are as follows Key Up arrow Down arrow Right arrow Left arrow Home End Pg Up PgDn Ins Del any char acter key Tab Function Moves the cursor up one line Moves the cursor down one line Moves the cursor one character to the right Moves the cursor one character to the left Moves the cursor to the beginning of its present line Moves the cursor to the end of its present line Moves the cursor to the top of the sereen Moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen Inserts all characters typed subsequently into the position to the left of the cursor Press Ins again to return to normal operation Deletes the character which is at the present cursor position Overwrites the character which is at the current cursor position Moves the cursor to the next tab position FUNCTION KEYS AVAILABLE ON THE PERL MAIN SC
81. he first use of an array variable in a procedure See the description of the for next statement for PEKL statements which involve arrays Expressions Constants and variables may be joined by arithmetic operators see Table 4 2 or relational operators see Table 4 3 to form expressions Such expressions may be used in PERL statements in the same way that constants or variables are used The following statements use expressions as arguments for i 1 to num_of_samples 2 result absorbance sample_weight TABLE 4 2 ARITHMETIC OPERATORS Operation Operator Expression Addition atb Subtraction a b Multiplication a b Division a b Modulus a b Negation a 4 4 TABLE 4 3 RELATIONAL AND LOGICAL OPERATORS Operator Operation equal to lt gt not equal to lt less than lt less than or equal to gt greater than gt greater than or equal to AND logical AND OR logical OR NOT logical NOT When PERL evaluates an expression such as 2 4 3 it operates under a hier archy that determines which operation should come first Without such a hierarchy the expression could be evaluated as either 14 or 18 It is 14 The following list shows the order of precedence The system performs the operations at the top of the list first from left to right in the expression followed in order by the items lower on the list Functions Unary subtraction NOT Multiplication division modulus Addition and subtraction
82. he right column to adjust the grippers so that they are opened wide enough to clear the item but closed enough to clear the next item below it d When the position of the robot and the position of the grippers are both correct turn off the Teach Pendant e Press Enter The X Y and Z coordinates of the position will appear in the upper right side of the screen The screen message changes to request the second position Repeat steps a through e above positioning the robot at the bottom item in the stack The sereen message then changes to request the third position Repeat steps a through e again without moving the robot from the bottom item in the stack 8 86 3 21 8 You will then be asked for three pieces of information as shown in the table below Press Enter after each response Prompt Sample Response Meaning Number of rows 1 ENTER Stack consists of 1 vertical row Number of columns 8 ENTER Number of items in the stack Length of tube mm 50 ENTER Height to which items are to be picked up The information about the rack named stack2 will be stored in the PERL Directory The robot Teach Program options menu returns 9 Highlight Position the Gripper on the options menu Press Enter 10 Repeat step 1 entering the following values Force to Close 4 A 2 e Oaoa tt aveu Force to Hold 4 Rin G ve Xe Rie i Force Duration 50 11 Press the F8 Bkup key repeatedly or press F7 Quit to return to
83. he DOS prompt A gt appears put a new unformatted diskette in drive B Type the following command format b s Press Enter and wait for the DOS prompt to reappear 8 86 5 6 6 7 8 9 When the system asks you format another insert a second blank disk in drive B and type y This will give you two formatted disks on which you ean copy your PERL program disk and your System Configuration Utility CONFIG disk Remove the DOS diskette from drive A and insert your PERL program disk Type copy a perl exe b and press Enter The entire PERL diskette will be copied onto the diskette in drive B Remove the PERL diskette from drive A Remove the diskette from drive B and label it DOS PERL work disk Insert your CONFIG disk in drive A and your other formatted blank disk in drive B Type copy a b and press Enter The CONFIG disk will be copied onto the disk in drive B Remove the disk from drive B and label it CONFIG work disk Remove the CONFIG disk from drive A Store the original PERL and CONFIG disks where they will be safe from heat magnetic fields dirt or mechanieal injury Loading the PERL DOS Work Disk For this procedure use the DOS PERL work disk which you created in the preceding section 1 2 First load DOS To do this with power to the System Controller turned off insert your DOS PERL diskette into drive A Turn on all external devices connected to your
84. he array variables to 0 String variables are initialized to the null string You may dimension more than 1 array in a single statement The statement dim weight 10 month 12 name 6 dimensions two numeric arrays and one character array allocating space to store ten weights twelve months and six names Arrays may have multiple dimensions up to three Such arrays are called two dimensional or three dimensional A two dimensional array dimensioned dim array 2 3 would contain the variables array 1 1 array 1 2 array 1 3 array 2 1 array 2 2 array 2 3 8 86 4 37 The following nested for next loops use such an array oldfile 1 oldfile1 oldfile 2 oldfile2 fori 1 to 2 for j 1 to 3 read info i j from oldfile i next j next i The above procedure would read the first three pieces of information from each of two files called oldfilel and oldfile2 Warning The software will allow you to dimension an array for up to three dimensions of 256 elements each subscripts 0 to 255 Be aware however that you may not be able to store large arrays in the computer because of memory limitations Arrange your program so that you store the array on disk and retrieve elements as you need them break The break statement transfers control out of a loop and gives control to the next statement following the loop For example num_of_samples 40 while num_of_samples gt 0 get_samp way_samp
85. he command redirect input from lims Input can also come from a file redirect input from datafile Similarly output could be redirected to the printer a port name or to a file redirect output to newfile When you want the input or output to again come from or to the standard device you must use another redirect command In the following examples con refers to the console sereen and keyboard redirect input from con redirect output to con When the system encounters a statement containing inkey there is a pause in procedure execution the pause lasts until the operator signals by hitting a key The following two lines accomplish this display Press any key to continue x inkey The string value of the key hit will be assigned to x Note that inkey itself is never assigned a value 8 86 4 29 The pause may provide an opportunity for the operator to make a decision display Do you wish to change solutions Type y or n x inkey if x y then input Enter concentration of new solution conc_soln end if prep_sam The above procedure segment provides a pause in which the operator can change solutions if desired If the value of x indicates that this has been done input of information is requested before the procedure continues with the sub procedure prepare_samples See the description of the if state ment readkey The readkey keyboard function provides a related faci
86. her procedures which would be carried out after the cap is left at the vacuum procedure ermp_vil for i 1 to 40 vial i under_vac rem raise vial to vacuum up_to_vac turn_on_vac rem vacuum is a variable to test whether vacuum turns on until vacuum 0 vacuum vacon if vacuum 0 then sound alarm end if end until alarm_off pros_sam under_vac up_to_vac turn_off_vac 6 16 until vacuum 1 vacuum vacon if vacuum 1 then sound alarm end if end until alarm_off under_jaws up_to_jaws erimp under_jaws vial i back next i end procedure Weighing Balances have one way communication they output measured masses to the System Controller The only kind of balance command which can be issued is a command to the System Controller to accept this reading i Seas REET cee eheS Se tzeak saratana Figure 6 4 Weighing A balance command such as weigh_sample causes the measured mass to be output to the System Controller The following procedure weighs a sample transfers the measured mass to a variable called mass then appends mass to a file on disk procedure stor_wt mass get_weight append mass to mass _fil close mass _fil end procedure APPENDICES Section Page APPENDIX 1 ERROR MESSAGES ccccccccccnccssecovcsccess Al l APPENDIX 2 USEFUL DOS COMMANDS cccccccccccsccceceee A2M1 LEAVING PERL ACCESSING DOS seceeeeee A2 1 DOS COMMANDS cescccsccccccvccccsccesees A2 L APPENDIX 3 CONT
87. his same action to be performed but they have been given dif ferent names for increased program clarity 8 86 3 43 ao Before a procedure can use the measured mass it must assign the mass to a variable For example the following procedure weighs a sample transfers the measured mass to a variable called mass then appends mass to a file on disk procedure store_wt mass get_weight append mass to mass_file close mass_file end procedure Accessing the Balance Teach Program 1 From the PERL main menu press the F3 Teach funetion key The Teach Program selection menu shown in Figure 3 1 will appear It lists the types of modules for which Teach Programs are available 2 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn keys to highlight Balance and press Enter If you have more than one balance installed in your system the next sereen which appears will list them by name This information comes from the system configuration file where you have assigned each module a name e g weigh_station balance_1 If you have only one balance this screen is omitted 3 Choose the desired balance by highlighting its name and pressing Enter The next menu which appears lists three options Display Current Weight Name Weigh Command Execute Weigh Command The sections which follow will describe each of these options Note If you have a Sartorius balance the menu will also include Name Tare Command Displa
88. ime Statements eeceeee Fie sats 4 44 5 THE PERL EDITOR cece cece cece cece ec ene cee reeneee 5 1 INTRODUCTION ccc cece cece cece cence cee e eee esenee 5 1 EDITOR COMMANDS 2 eee cece cc cn cece ccc EE EE 5 1 Commands on the Editor Menu eeceeeeceeneees 5 2 Commands Controlled by Keyboard Keys 5 3 8 86 CONTENTS Section Page PROGRAMMING PROCEDURES cec cece csc cee oees 5 4 Entering the Editor Oia tie WN aco WV oboe Ser aese 5 4 Editing a Procedure c cece cece cece cece ccerees 5 5 Editing a Text Bile cso sisicste setoriais dianas tes 5 7 Leaving the Editor osc ccccccentdee se ressesitease cage 5 8 6 CREATING AN APPLICATIONS PROGRAM 0cee0 6 1 PLANNING THE PROCEDURE cece eee cece eeeees 6 2 Defining the Task T anA eisai ete dawns 6 2 Identifying the Procedures Needed cece eee eeeee 6 2 Planning New Procedures EEEE 6 3 CREATING THE PROCEDURE connec eeeseenee 6 6 Teaching New Commands ccceecsercevcenes es 6 6 Writing Procedures ee eeeeeuee oe b Siete TE EE 6 6 Writing the Final Procedure 0 000 EEA 6 7 THE LIBRARY FACILITY wo cece cece cece eens sass 6 9 SOME SAMPLE PROCEDURES cecccecnvvoevevens 6 10 Getting Tubes from a Rack and Returning Them 6 11 Using the MasterSyringe ceccccee nec eeenesaee 6 12 Performing a Dilution ccceccceeesseceoes 6 12 Dispensing Liquids
89. ing a rack To return the tube the format is rackname i back Thus to take the third tube from empties and then replace it the commands would be empties 3 empties 3 back Figure 6 2 Getting a Tube froma Rack 6 12 To position the robot hand above a location in the rack for example location 5 the command would be empties 5 over Using the MasterSyringe Performing Dilutions The following procedure draws in 1 ml of solvent and 0 5 ml of sample separated by a 0 1 ml air bubble Refer to the discussion of the fill_syr procedure under Planning New Procedures or to the MasterSyringe manual for an explanation of the dilution procedure The entire 1 6 ml could then be dispensed by the dispense_lig procedure below procedure dil_samp for i 1 to 40 sample i fill_1ml_solvnt fill_0 1_air under_disp rem intermediate positions as tube is raised mid_dispenser_1 mid_dispenser_2 at_dispenser fill_0 5_sample rem intermediate positions as tube is lowered mid_dispenser_2 mid_dispenser_1 under_disp sample i back next i end procedure Dispensing Liquids This procedure assumes that liquid has been drawn into the syringe i e the plunger is not at zero The robot gets a test tube brings it to the dispensing stand and raises it in 3 steps around the dispensing probe The syringe plunger returns to zero the test tube is lowered and the tube is returned to its rack Notice that the procedure must give the sy
90. ion and retrieves the cap 16 The crimper seals the vial 17 The robot places the vial in the autosampler It is wise at this point to compare your list of tasks with the list of existing procedures in your PERL Directory Use the F4 function key to display the Directory In the case of the example above assume that your Directory already lists procedures for such standard tasks as task task procedure name mixing 7 8 and 9 mix_samp leaving vial cap at vacuum station 12 and 13 park_cap crimping 15 and 16 ermp_vil placing vials in autosampler 17 autosam dispensing liquids 5 and 6 syringe plunger also 14 disp_liq to 0 0 ml You would be able to use these procedures within your final procedure without change Your planning can now focus on programming for tasks 1 through 4 10 and 11 Planning New Procedures We assumed that there were six tasks in the above example which were not programmed in existing procedures You could combine these into two procedures one for tasks 1 through 4 one for tasks 10 and 11 Since both procedures are concerned with filling the syringe after you write one of them you can modify it to form the other tasks 1 through 4 fill syringe This procedure will load the syringe with the required amounts of sample and solvent for one vial You could name it fill syr 6 4 The steps involved in loading the syringe are The robot picks up a test tube of sample from the rack The robot
91. ion of HC The system does not attempt to take any action on a line which begins with the word rem However the line remains with the procedure and is printed for the programmer s information whenever the procedure is listed 8 86 4 12 You can use rem only at the beginning of a statement If you wish to append a remark to the end of a statement line begin it with an exclamation mark a 5 00 0 2 i volume remaining in syringe You can also use the exclamation mark at the beginning of a statement in place of rem 8 86 4 13 System Control dos dos command dos filename perl The dos command without an argument halts execution of a running procedure and returns control to the operating system DOS You can then issue DOS commands from the keyboard PERL remains in memory when you type perl the procedure resumes execution However you will usually want to use either a valid DOS command or the name of a batch file as the argument to dos The system will execute the command or the tasks listed in the batch file then automatically resume execution of the PERL procedure For example the following procedure uses the dos command to execute a BASIC program called acquire procedure command deliver dos basic acquire deliver sample call basic program acquire bas to acquire data from instrument cleanup prepare for the next sample end procedure The procedure listed below exe
92. isplaying Module Information sseeeeeseeeeees 2 13 LOADING PERL essssesoesoecsoosesesoesesseseseeeee 2 14 Default Conditions at Start up seeeececeeeeeees 2 15 THE DIRECT COMMAND PROCESSOR ccsecececeeeees 2 16 PRE DEFINED COMMANDS ciccsecccccccessceeccsoes 2 16 THE DCP SCREEN EDITOR ccevecccceccescceeceeeees 2 19 FUNCTION KEYS AVAILABLE ON THE PERL MAIN SCREEN esessesescsesseosesoeseeeseeseseso 2 19 THE PERL DIRECTORY csccsccsccccccccccccceeceeees 2 20 LEAVING PERL occccccccsccccccccccccccssseeeaseccss 2 22 UPDATING YOUR PERL DIRECTORY TO VERSION 1 60 If you have a PERL Directory PERL DIR file containing commands created with a version of PERL earlier than 1 60 you will need to convert it before using it with PERL 1 60 To do this run the program XLATE which is included with your new PERL disks Important If you try to use your existing directory with the new software before translating it your directory of commands may be corrupted and lost Use the following procedure 1 In drive B of the System Controller place your work disk containing the files PERL DIR and ROBOT 999 These are the files to be translated from an earlier version to PERL 1 60 2 In drive A place the disk containing the XLATE program 3 To make drive B the default drive type b and press Enter The prompt will become B gt 4 Torun the XLATE program type axlate and press Enter The screen will prompt you to ent
93. lable are Five Data Bits Six Data Bits Seven Data Bits Eight Data Bits Highlight the option required by the module and press the Enter key The system next prompts for the timeout value that is the time in seconds that the computer waits for the module to respond to a command If no response has been received when the time has elapsed the computer displays an appropriate error message When the system prompts Timeout enter a value up to 99 seconds and press Enter Note The timeout function has not yet been implemented so the system will make no use of your response to this prompt The system then prompts Module Name 8 86 12 Enter a name and press the Enter key Names must begin with an alphabetic character may include up to sixteen characters and may not include spaces Spaces can be indicated using the underscore character The system will use the name to identify the module in the PERL environment Notes 1 The following characters should not be used as names in SCU or PERL 2 If you are entering the name of a syringe the system will continue to prompt you for more names If you have syringes daisy chained with more than one connected to one port enter the name of each syringe at the port pressing Enter after each one When all are entered press Enter again without typing a name Proceed to step 12 Important Steps 12 through 14 establish parameters which are defaulte
94. le in the Editor the menu shown in Figure 5 2 appears at the right of the screen To select a command from the menu use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the desired command then press the Enter key After the command has been executed the menu will be erased and the text will return to the sereen The following commands are available Save on Disk Stores the file in memory on disk under the name provided Procedures will be stored in both ASCII and compiled form text files in ASCII Load from Disk A prompt will request the name of the file to be loaded The new file will replace any file already in memory A backup copy of the file being loaded will be placed on disk with the name FILENAME BAK Print Sends the entire file in memory to the printer 8 86 Copyright c 1985 PERL Editor Perkin Elmer Corporation Save on disk Load from disk Print Turn compiler ON Turn compiler OFF Compiler on F6 Help F8 Stat F8 Bkup F9 Ins F10 Del Figure 5 2 Edit Commands Menu Screen Turn Compiler On Causes the system to automatically compile procedures to an executable form when you save them to disk Turn Compiler Off Turns off automatic syntax checking Commands Controlled by Keyboard Keys Key Command F6 Help Note The HELP function has not yet been implemented F7 Edit Commands Brings up the Commands Menu described previously When the Commands Menu is up this funetion key becomes Quit Leave Edit Commands M
95. lity for operator control It allows the procedure to continue without pause unless a key has been pressed since the last time the keyboard buffer was read If no key has been pressed the value of the readkey function is the null string The following procedure will continue to process samples until the operator presses a key The system will not save the value of the key pressed procedure rdky_dem while readkey display Press any key to stop process end while end procedure If the value of the key pressed is important use readkey as in the following procedure rdky_sav until x lt gt display Press a key to stop process x readkey end until display The key pressed was x end procedure 8 86 4 30 Printing print desired output z print sereen The print statement functions exactly like the display statement except that its output goes to the printer rather than the monitor screen See the discussion of display for a description of the varieties of syntax available The print sereen statement causes the entire contents of the screen to be output to the printer When you are in the Direct Command Processor you ean accomplish the same thing by pressing the shift key and the PRint SCReen key simultaneously The printer must be turned on 8 86 4 29 The pause may provide an opportunity for the operator to make a decision display Do you wish to change solutions Ty
96. ll_0 1_ air under_disp at_dispenser fill 0 2 sample under_disp sample i back end procedure 7 Look over the program for places where statements from Section 4 are needed For example it would save time in executing the program if the syringe filled with solvent while the robot gets the test tube Parallel could be inserted before line 2 and end parallel after line 3 8 Insert appropriate rem statements to identify the function of the program and to explain any ambiguous statements The final procedure will be similar to the following procedure fill_syr rem Procedure fills dispenser with 1 8 ml solvent 0 2 ml sample rem separated by 0 1 ml air rem parallel sample i fill_1 8_solvnt end parallel fill 0 1_air under_disp at_dispenser fill 0 2_sample under_disp sample i back end procedure 9 Save your procedure by highlighting Save on Disk on the Edit Commands menu and pressing Enter 10 Repeat steps 1 9 for all other procedures such as aliquot which you have to create for your program Writing the Final Procedure Writing the final procedure is similar to writing the shorter procedures it will use except that most of the statements in the overall procedure will be names of other procedures to be executed It is advisable where possible to run the procedures individually before incorporating them into the overall procedure to be sure that they work as you intended When you have written and teste
97. mands Highlight Mark Block and press Enter Repeat step a placing the cursor at the end of line 6 Lines 4 6 will be marked c Move the cursor to the beginning of line 3 Press F7 and highlight Paste Block Press Enter The marked lines will be inserted ahead of the cursor d Press F7 and highlight Cut Block The marked lines will be deleted from their original location The procedure should now appear similar to the following procedure mix_samp over_mixer down_5em open_gripper up_2em turn_on_mixer set timer 1 for 15 seconds wait for timer 1 turn_off_mixer down_2em close_gripper over_mixer end procedure You could save the procedure by highlighting Save on Disk on the Edit Commands menu If you save it be sure to delete it afterward To use the DOS command ERASE see Appendix 2 Note Procedure names which you assign in the first line of the procedure can contain no more than 8 characters If more than 8 characters are present you will receive the message Procedure name exceeds 8 characters when you attempt to save the procedure Editing a Text File The editing process is exactly the same for a text file as for a procedure except that there is no automatic compilation When you create a new text file each record in the file should be typed on a separate line You might for example type a list of identifying alphanumeric information to be printed with each sample number as the samples are pr
98. mes before the next i so that the j loop is completely enclosed within the i loop Up to 16 loops may be nested in this manner For loops allow easy access to the individual elements of an array If the array subscript variable is the same as the counter variable of the loop the value of the subscript changes each time the loop is executed procedure get_mass dim weight 10 for i 1 to 10 read weight i from weights dat display i weight i g next i close weights dat end procedure 8 86 4 36 As it reads weights dat in the above example the computer generates a display similar to the following 1 0 543 2 0 601g 3 0 522 4 0 576 5 ete Be aware that every time you use arrays you must use the dim statement described below The system does not assign any default subscripts dim var i nae z When you use array variables you must allocate computer memory for stor ing them This is accomplished by the dim statement which is usually placed near the beginning of the procedure and must always come before the first use of the array variable In the procedure above which read 10 weights from weights dat for example the statement dim weight 10 would have to occur before the first use of the array variable dim stands for dimension The statement not only allocates memory for the weight i array it tells the system that the largest subscript will be 10 and it initializes all t
99. mmands which will integrate these modules into the system In addition you can program new applica tions for your existing system creating new commands as needed The Automated Sample Preparation System can carry out many different sample preparation procedures in your laboratory The programming language provided for your use is simple to use so that you can program the procedures as readily as you devise them For this reason PERL appears similar to BASIC a language which is easy to learn and with which you may already be familiar Not only are many of the statements the same as System Controller IBM PC LIMS Parallel Printer PERL Software RS232 Communications RS232 Communications Locations Serviced by Robot Figure 1 1 Inte nccion Among Modules of The MasterLab Automated Sample Preparation System 1 3 BASIC statements the architecture of the programs is also similar You will accumulate a certain amount of data weights volumes numbers of samples during sample preparations PERL is capable of processing this data In fact PERL can be used for any usual programming needs the difference from other languages lies mainly in its additional ability to communicate with robots and other devices easily It was created especially for performing physical tasks using laboratory robotics The PERL Programming Environment The PERL programming environment see Figure 1 2 consists of a set of programming tools to help
100. module whose commands you wish to see Press Enter If the module you selected has several types of possible commands then a menu of command types will appear 3 If necessary highlight the desired type of command and press ENTER The options menu for the module you selected will appear In all cases it lists the following options Display Execute Module Command Change Module Command Delete Module Command 4 The Display Execute option is highlighted Press Enter to select it A display of commands you have created for the chosen module will appear e g robot commands or syringe commands depending on what module and command type you chose in steps 2 and 3 5 Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the command you wish to execute If you have more than one sereen of commands use the PgUp and PgDn keys to move from screen to screen Press Enter If you do not wish to execute a command proceed to step 7 6 The system will execute the command and return you to the options menu for the module you selected 7 Press F8 Bkup repeatedly to return to earlier screens or press F7 Quit to return directly to PERL 8 86 2 22 LEAVING PERL When you wish to use DOS commands or load other software you must leave the PERL environment There are two ways to accomplish this To return to the DOS Operating System while keeping PERL in memory type dos and press Enter You can then issue DOS commands For some commands you
101. n The cursor is positioned at switch 1 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the name of the switch which is to be used in the command Press Enter Check that the ON OFF state of the switch as reported at the bottom of the screen is as you wish ON closing the switch OFF opening the switch Otherwise change it by using the up and down arrow keys or F9 and F10 Press Enter You will be prompted to type in a command name Type in a name having up to 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example Command Name crimper_on Press Enter Your command will be stored in the PERL directory You may proceed to move the cursor to another switch and name another command or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Switch Outputs menu Execute Switch Command After you have created a command you can use the Execute Command option to see if the command functions as you intended 1 Highlight Execute Command on the Switch Outputs menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter the name of a command 8 86 3 31 A 2 Type the name of the command you wish to execute for example Command Name erimper_off 3 Press Enter The command will be executed You may proceed to enter another command to be executed or you may use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Switch Outputs menu Using the Inputs Program
102. n unless you add delete or change a module In that case you would change the system configuration file to reflect the changes to the system For example if you added a bar code station to the system you would run CONFIG in order to make the necessary addition to the system configur ation file Loading Config 1 Load DOS as described in Loading the PERL DOS Work Disk above 2 Place the CONFIG disk in drive A and a data disk in drive B With the DOS prompt A gt displayed type b and press return This will make the data disk in B the destination on which the system will save your configuration file PERL SCF 8 86 3 To load the Config program from disk A into memory type a config and press Enter The display shows the main menu of Config Four options are available Add a Module Change a Module Delete a Module Display Module Information The bottom of the display identifies the tasks assigned to each of the five function keys which are active in Config The key assignments are Key Label Function F6 Help Displays information on the operation of various parts of the program Note The HELP function has not yet been implemented F7 Quit Stops the program and returns to the DOS environment F8 Bkup Returns to the menu displayed prior to the selection of the current menu F9 Up Highlights the menu item on the line above the item currently highlighted F10 Dn Highlights the menu item on the lin
103. name d filename If no drives are specified the default drive is used The drives do not have to be different Example COPY B MYPROG B NEWPROG Copy and combine COPY d filename d filename d filename If no target filename is given all the specified files will be placed in the first file named Otherwise the files are concatenatea ana placed in the target file Example COPY FILA FILB FILC BIGFILE DISKCOPY Copies the entire contents of the diskette in the source arive onto the diskette in the target arive The target aisk will be formatted if necessary DISKCOPY a a 1 ERASE FORMAT A2 3 The first parameter is the source drive the second is the target If the 1 parameter is usea only the first side of the diskette will be copied If the two arives are the same or if none are specified a single arive copy is performed you will be prompted to insert appropriate diskettes as needea After copying is complete DISKCOPY asks Copy another N If you answer Y the next copy will be performed using the same drives as were specified in the original command Deletes a file from a diskette DEL is an alternative form of the command ERASE d filename or DEL d filename Initializes the diskette in the designated drive or the default drive Caution Formatting destroys all data on the aiskette FORMAT d S 1 8 V1 B The optional parameters of the FORMAT comma
104. nated Equipment 6 0 WARRANTY 6 1 LICENSOR warrants that for ninety 90 days from the date the Licensed Program is received the Licensed Program supplied by LICENSOR snail perform in accordance with the standards set forth in the user manual related to the Licensed Program if any provided that the attached Software Registration Form nas been returned to LICENSOR 2 0 LICENSE GRANT 2 1 LICENSEE is granted a non transferable non exclusive right to Use the Licensed Program supplied by LICENSOR on the Designated Equipment LICENSEE may make copies of the Licensed Program as necessary for archive testing or backup purposes only 6 2 The above warranty does not extend and shail not apply to Licensed Program to the extent that any breach of warranty is caused by the Licensed Program being a not Used in accordance with the user manual supplied hereunder b Used in combination with any program material not licensed herein c modified by LICENSEE or d Used with equipment other than the Designated Equipment LICENSOR MAKES NO WARRANTIES THAT ERRORS HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY ELIMINATED FROM THE LICENSED PROGRAM OR THAT USE OF ANY LICENSED PROGRAM WILL NOT INFRINGE UPON ANY PATENT COPYRIGHT OR TRADEMARK LICENSOR MAKES NO OTHER WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR MERCHANTABILITY WITH 3 0 TERM 3 1 This LICENSE shall be effective from the date of receipt of the LICENSED PROG
105. nd edit either procedures or text files Text files are sequential files created for use in a PERL procedure Such a file may in fact have actually been created during execution of a PERL procedure you would then use the Editor for editing only The Editor functions differently if you are editing a procedure rather than a text file The system compiles a procedure into an intermediate form ready to be interpreted when it isrun This permits more rapid execution The PERL Editor uses the System Controller keyboard keys for cursor movement and such editing functions as inserting characters A menu accessed by a function key is available for choosing among major tasks such as creating a procedure or saving a procedure on disk EDITOR COMMANDS The PERL Editor is accessed by the F2 function key Once you have entered the Editor see Entering the Editor for detailed information on doing this the sereen will be similar to the following with a cursor positioned at the upper left corner and prompts visible for the five function keys F6 to F10 Copyright c 1965 PERL Editor Perkin Elmer Corporation Compiler on F6 Help F7 Cmd F8 Bkup F9 Ins F10 Del Figure 5 1 PERL Editor Initial Screen You may select Editor commands either from the menu obtained by pressing F7 or by using certain typewriter keys The remainder of this section describes both types of commands Commands on the Editor Menu When you press F7 Edit Commands whi
106. nd have the following meanings S causes the operating system files to be placed on the new disk 1 causes the disk to be tormattea only for single sided use 8 formats the diskette for 8 sectors per track The default is 9 1V prompts you for a volume label which will be written on the disk to uniquely identify it Note 8 and V cannot both be entered at the same time B allows any system of DOS to be placed on the diskette Otherwise only versions 2 00 or 2 10 may be placed on it Note V and S cannot be used with B A2 4 Example To format the disk in drive B for single sided use with a volume number enter FORMAT B 1 V The system displays the following message Insert new diskette for drive B and strike any key when ready After you have carried out these instructions the message Formatting appears When formatting is complete the system prompts Format complete Volume label 11 character ENTER for none When you have responded to the prompt the system will aisplay XXXXxx bytes total disk space XXXXX bytes used by system XXXXXX bytes available on disk Format another Y N Enter Y to format another diskette N to end the format program APPENDIX 3 CONTROL CHARACTERS AND THEIR PERL DEFINITIONS Character Number ASCII PERL Alternate dec hex Abbreviation Abbreviation Abbreviation g g NUL lt NUL gt 1 1 SOH lt SOH gt lt CTRLA gt 2 2 STX lt STX gt lt CTRLB g
107. nd press the Enter key If the module is a balance the system will ask you to indicate whether it is a Mettler or a Sartorius The system now asks you to enter the communications requirements for the new module If you selected Printer as the module to be added the system prompts Port Type and two options RS 232 and Centronics are available Highlight the option which corresponds to the interface on the printer you are adding and press Enter Note For devices other than printers the system assumes an RS 232 serial interface 8 86 2 7 4 a For RS 232 devices When the display prompts Port Mnemonic highlight the name of the communications port on the System Controller to which you connected the module and press the Enter key For example highlighting COM3 and pressing Enter identifies communications port 3 on the System Controller as the port to which you have connected the module Note COM3 through COME are available on the standard System Controller COM1 COM2 and COM7 through COM10 are optional ports b For Centronics interface printers only When the display prompts Port Mnemonic highlight the name of the Centronics printer port to which the printer is connected For example if the printer is connected to the primary parallel interface port highlight LPT and press the Enter key Note LPT1 is usually used when the System Controller contains a Hercules graphies card Importan
108. nes 5 8 allow two devices to act simultaneously Lines 9 11 also 4 6 7 14 15 17 20 are commands created with the Teach Programs and stored on disk Lines 12 and 13 suspend operation for 15 seconds Lines 16 20 contain a conditional statement and an alternative action if the condition is true Calls a subroutine to be executed End of repeated action begun at line 3 Last line of procedure As you can see from the example a PERL procedure can look quite different from programs in other languages This is because of the unique user created commands such as weigh sample There are also some logical constructs such as the parallel for example which are provided to meet the unique needs of robotics Much of the logic of the procedure however is similar to BASIC so that the overall architecture will be familiar Note Command names may contain up to 16 characters the first of which must be alphabetic Spaces are not permitted in the user created commands This is the reason for the presence of the underline character _ in most such commands You must not use in command names either decimal points or symbols which the system could interpret as arithmetic operators PERL applications procedures are usually constructed from shorter procedures Both the procedures and the subprocedures begin with procedure statements Section 6 of this manual will take you through the steps in developing an applications pr
109. ng Liquids ccccccccsccccccccccces Using a Syringe Variable cccccesccccsces Crimping cccccsccccccaccccncccccsccscccssecees Weighing cecccceccccccccercccccccccnccesscens a Page 6 1 6 2 6 2 6 2 6 3 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 6 9 6 10 6 11 6 12 6 12 6 12 6 13 6 14 6 15 6 16 CREATING AN APPLICATIONS PROGRAM The first two parts of this section will take you through the process of planning and writing a PERL applications program called a procedure The planning is as important as the writing Many of the statements in the procedures you write will be commands you create with the Teach Programs This teaching is the most time consuming part of robotics programming and you will greatly improve your efficiency if you first invest time in carefully analyzing your procedures to determine the commands you need to teach Two places in this manual contain sample PERL procedures which you may be able to adapt to your own application At the end of Section 6 are procedures for carrying out the tasks of each of the major modules of the MasterLab System In Appendix 4 is an extensive procedure which integrates many features of PERL and makes use of several subprocedures The examples given in this manual are concerned with applications which specifically involve robotics If you wish to create PERL programs which manage your data files process your data or are concerned with input output the PERL statements in
110. no spaces are permitted USING THE TEACH PROGRAMS The Teach Programs are accessed from the PERL main menu screen by means of function key F3 Teach Each Teach Program consists of a series of screens which present you with menus of available options or ask you to input information from the keyboard To make choices on the menus highlight the desired option using the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn keys Then press Enter The F8 Bkup function key which is always available allows you to return to previous screens When you press F3 to access the Teach Programs a Teach Program selec tion menu similar to Figure 3 1 appears It lists the kinds of modules for which your system is configured for which Teach Programs are available to you Highlight the kind of module you want to teach and press Enter Copyright c 1985 PERL Teach Modules Perkin Elmer Corporation Robot Printer Syringe Balance Bar Code Reader Device Interface F6 Help F7 Quit F amp Bkup F9 Up Fi0 Dn Figure 3 1 Teach Program Selection Menu 8 86 3 4 THE ROBOT TEACH PROGRAM If you have only one robot in your system the robot Teach Program options menu see Figure 3 2 will be the first sereen to appear when you choose the Robot Teach Program If you have more than one robot installed in your system the first sereen which appears when you select the Robot Teach Program will list your robots by name The names
111. ns to testfile end while rem rem A null was entered so close the data file and end the procedure ren close testfile rem rem Once the file is closed the procedure performs an implicit return to the rem invoking procedure rem end procedure APPENDIX 5 PERL RESERVED WORDS You can use the words listed below as part of command variable or procedure names but not at the beginning of the name For example the name breakkey is illegal but keybreak is legal break case close date day devices display dos else if inkey month open parallel perl print procedure readkey rem save sereen system then time timer until while The following words can form part of a variable procedure or command name but do not use them as names exactly as written For example append is not a legal name but append1 would be legal append as close cursor define eof for from init input library log next output read receive redirect rewind send set speed step to use wait write The characters that follow have specific functions in PERL Do not use them in a command variable or procedure name unless you intend them to perform their functions 1 4 amp lt gt 2 PERL STATEMENTS The number at the end of each definition is the page where you will find detailed instructions for using the statement Function Definition append var to filename Adds the variable to the end of the previously existin
112. o use the Teach Programs For example if you add a balance to your system the balance Teach Program will not be available to you until you have used the Add a Module program of the System Configuration Utility to inform the software about the new module The Interactive Teaching Process A PERL applications program is in large part a series of communications to the various modules telling them to change a present condition to a new condition Table 3 1 gives examples of changes which some modules might undergo and command names which you could use to initiate the changes TABLE 3 1 TYPICAL USER CREATED COMMANDS Module Initial Condition Final Condition Created Command robot grippers over grippers under go_to_syringe test tube rack dispensing stand device AC outlet 1 OFF AC outlet 1 ON turn_on_mixer interface balance weight not being weight being com _weigh_sample eommunicated municated syringe plunger at 0 0 ml plunger at 5 0 ml fill_syr_5ml The Teach Programs are interactive They allow you to put the module in each successive condition needed for your application and then to assign a command name to that condition The commands you create are stored in the PERL directory From then on when the go_to_syringe command from Table 3 1 for example is entered from the keyboard or encountered in a running program the robot will place its hand under the dispensing stand The underline character is present in many command names because
113. ocedure from subroutines Creating a PERL Procedure When the Master Lab System is installed or whenever you add or change a module you must use the System Configuration Utility config See Creating the System Configuration File in Section 2 Assuming that this has been done and the system configuration file is complete you can create PERL procedures as follows 1 Use the Teach Programs to create the unique statements which will be needed in the procedure Examples might be fill_syr_2m1 or move_to_erimper Use of the Teach Programs is described in Section 3 2 Access the PEKL Editor as described in Section 5 3 Using the BASIC like PERL statements in Section 4 to provide the overall procedure structure and your created statements from step 1 to give commands for specific actions enter your procedure and edit it 4 Save the procedure Note If your software contains the optional Debug program press the F5 Debug function key to use it The following section explains how you can use the various sections of this manual as aids to PERL programming USING THIS MANUAL Organization The sections of this manual are arranged in the order in which you would logically need them in order to write a PERL procedure Section 2 System Commands describes how to load PERL how to use the function keys available from the main PERL screen and what commands can be issued from the keyboard Section 3 Teach Programs contains
114. ocessed 5 8 A text file generated by a running procedure could contain sample weights and other quantitative information You could call the file into the editor to make annotations then print it using the print command on the Edit Commands menu Text files are saved by selecting Save on Disk and entering a file name when prompted The compiler should be off Leaving the Editor Use the F8 Bkup function key to leave the Editor and return to the PERL Main Menu Screen When you press F8 the screen will ask if you want to save your file If you have already saved it press Enter If you have not press y the file will be saved and compiled if the compiler is on 8 86 CREATING AN APPLICATIONS PROGRAM Section 6 CREATING AN APPLICATIONS PROGRAM ccceeeoee PLANNING THE PROCEDURE ccceccccccsccccceeee Defining the Task cccecscccccccccccccccccenceees Identifying the Procedures Needed seeeeeeees Planning New Procedures 65 REEERE EET CREATING THE PROCEDURE seseseeseecseceesesecses Teaching New Commands cecccccsccceccseccees Writing Procedures s sssssesosooesoesosesocsceo Writing the Final Procedure sccccecccccccees THE LIBRARY FACILITY ccccccccccceccccceeece SOME SAMPLE PROCEDURES cecsecccccccencens Getting Tubes from a Rack and Returning Them Using the MasterSyringe cceccccccccccscsccees Performing a Dilution csccesncesecccecece Dispensi
115. of this manual to communicate with us SOFTWARE LICENSING AGREEMENT When you unpack your system you will see that the PERL disks are sealed The seal constitutes a self executing license for the software contained on the disk Breaking the seal indicates acceptance of the terms of the Software License Agreement located in the front of this manual A notice on the outside of the disks reads as follows NOTICE Program License Agreement The Programs Herein Are Licensed To You For Use On A Single Computer Under The Terms And Conditions Stated In The License Found In The Front Of Your Operator s Manual Opening This Package Indicates Your Acceptance Of Those Terms And Conditions If You Do Not Agree To Those Terms And Conditions You May Return This Package Unopened For A Full Refund Of The License Fee 8 86 2 SYSTEM COMMANDS Section Page 2 SYSTEM COMMANDS sseseecesecsesecessosesesssesee 2 1 SETTING UP YOUR PERL DISKS esesseseseososesseooes 2 1 Backing up DOS and PERL Disks One Time Only 2 1 Loading the PERL DOS Work Disk ssseeeeceeees 2 2 Creating a Data Disk csececececercccrccceceves 23 CREATING THE SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FILE 2 4 Introduction ccecccececccccccscccccceccsoeesees 2 4 Loading Config scesecececccccccccncncssceeeens 2 4 Adding a Module eceseseecesessccsccceccsesece 2 5 Changing a Module esseessesesesoseeceeseseeee 2 11 Deleting a Module ccecececcececscsscereccens 2 12 D
116. ogram 1 2 3 From the PERL main menu press the F3 Teach function key The Teach Program selection menu shown in Figure 3 1 will appear It lists the types of modules for which Teach Programs are available Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn keys to highlight Device Interface and press Enter If you have more than one device interface installed in your system the next sereen which appears will list them by name This information comes from the system configuration file where you have assigned each module a name e g dev_int DI_1 If you have only one device interface this sereen is omitted Choose the desired device interface by highlighting its name and pres sing Enter The next menu which appears lists the four types of functions which are controlled by the device interface Alarm Inputs A C Outlets Switch Outputs Differences Input Controlled Actions The sections which follow will describe the use of each of these options 8 86 3 29 1 Using the Switch Outputs Program The switch outputs on the device interface allow the interface to output a signal which turns an external device on or off Such an output is used to turn on the vacuum in the crimper for example another is used to close the crimping jaws The Switch Outputs portion of the device interface Teach Program is used to create the commands which control the switch outputs and thus in turn control the extern
117. ommunication is to be input or output the port must first be opened by means of the define statement The port name argument of the statement must be a port which has been defined in the System Configura tion File The define statement sets aside a buffer whose name is a string variable This buffer will contain the input or output data it may contain up to 255 characters In the example which follows LAMBDA3 is the name assigned to the port in the System Configuration File the buffer is to be named a define a as LAMBDA3 Outputting Data After the procedure has defined the buffer the desired output is assigned to it for example a GET ABSORBANCE Then the output can be sent send a Inputting Data The statement receive a will allow the buffer to receive communication from the device at LAMBDA3 Thus the entire sequence of statements for obtaining an absorbance from the Lambda 3 instrument would be as shown on the following page 8 86 4 40 procedure get_abs define a as LAMBDA3 a GET ABSORBANCE send a receive a display a end procedure Receiving Input without Terminators Usually a serial input ends with a terminator that signals the end of the transmission The input function allows a specified number of characters to be transmitted without a terminator The syntax for using the input function is as follows a input device name number of characters The device name is the name a
118. omplish this a Turn on the Teach Pendant using the ON OFF switch on the top See Figure 3 3 b Use the six X Y and Z touch pad keys in the top three rows of the right column to move the robot into position above the first test tube A in Figure 3 7 Place the hand in position so that the grippers are at the right height to grasp a test tube from the rack near the top of the tube Figure 3 4 shows the direction of motion initiated by the X Y and Z keys Important Teach positions A B and C exactly as indicated in Figure 3 7 Changing the order will cause the robot to behave unpredictably c Use the O pen and C lose touch pad keys at the bottom of the right column to adjust the grippers so that they are opened wide enough to clear the test erat put closed enough to clear the i adjacent test tube Pys A wast oe te cael Lowth the Bree CRE d When the position of the robot and the position of the grippers are both correct turn off the Teach Pendant e Press Enter The X Y and Z coordinates of the position will appear in the upper right side of the sereen The screen message changes to request the second tube position Important Do not change the Z height coordinate from this point on unless this is a slanted rack Repeat steps a through e above positioning the robot above the first tube in the last row B in Figure 3 7 The sereen message then changes to request the third tube position
119. on step expression 3 from if expression then init device inkey input prompt variable is library load log destination month next var open output perl print print sereen procedure name read var from filename readkey receive var page 4 34 page 4 28 and 4 40 page 4 31 page 4 17 page 4 28 page 4 25 page 4 32 page 4 15 page 4 14 page 4 16 page 4 43 page 4 34 page 4 18 page 4 28 page 4 13 page 4 30 page 4 30 page 4 11 page 4 40 page 4 29 page 4 39 redirect input from device or redirect output to device page 4 28 8 86 4 10 relative x y z p r rem comment rewind filename save sereen send var page 4 18 page 4 11 page 4 40 page 4 14 page 4 30 page 4 39 set timer no for quantity of time type of time speed integer step stop suspend system then time timer to until condition up distance use device name wait for timer no while condition write var to filename 8 86 page 4 20 page 4 19 page 4 34 page 4 14 page 4 14 page 4 14 page 4 31 page 4 43 page 4 20 page 4 34 page 4 22 page 4 18 page 4 17 page 4 20 page 4 22 page 4 40 page 4 12 page 4 26 4 11 Housekeeping Statements BORE ARR E LER ORES Rts ee am ore em ewe ores ti r i setesewecavewaxaveree Gave Ow ES
120. or use as a syringe variable 3 Press Enter The variable name will be stored in the PERL Directory and the system will return you to the syringe options menu 4 Press function key F8 Bkup repeatedly to return to the Teach Program selection menu and then to PERL or press F7 Quit to return directly to PERL THE DEVICE INTERFACE TEACH PROGRAM The device interface is used to control or interact with other devices It ean do this by turning an AC outlet on or off by monitoring logie inputs or by means of an output signal to the external device which turns it on or off Thus the conditions which are given command names in the device interface Teach Program always consist of the on off status of a particular switch or input Some examples are shown in Table 3 2 The names you give to the commands should be descriptive of the condition the device interface is controlling or monitoring There could be up to twelve input lines being monitored It is more helpful to find instrument_ready in the directory of available commands than to be confronted with input_7_on 8 86 3 28 TABLE 3 2 TYPICAL DEVICE INTERFACE COMMANDS Condition Possible Command Name input from instrument ON instrument_ready AC outlet ON turn_mixer_on switch output to instrument ON take_reading alarm ON sound_alarm change has occurred in input 1 diff_at_1 change at input 2 causes AC outlet to turn ON inpt2_turnon_mxr Accessing the Device Interface Teach Pr
121. osition parameter i e a volume Suppose for example that you had named and stored a syringe variable called syr_1_vol In an applications program you wish to fill syringe 1 with 5 ml of liquid then dispense 0 2 mlof that liquid to each of 25 test tubes If the sample numbers 1 to 25 are represented by i then you must define a variable a for example such that a 5 00 0 2 i Then your syringe variable syr_1_vol would be equal to a The PERL syntax for this is syr_l_vola Those two lines would be used in a program segment similar to the following fill_syr_5ml switch_to_output for i 1 to 25 a 5 00 0 2 i syr_1_vola process_sample next i 8 86 3 27 a Important The system must always execute a syringe command before it encounters a syringe variable so that it can establish valve position syringe volume and syringe speed The value of syr_i1_vol could be defined by other expressions in other programs but it will always be interpreted as referring to a syringe plunger position To name a syringe variable proceed as follows 1 Highlight Name Syringe Variable on the syringe Teach Program options menu Press Enter 2 If you have a dual syringe the next screen will ask you whether the variable is to apply to Syringe One or Syringe Two Highlight the one the variable is to control and press Enter 3 The system then prompts Variable Name Type in the name you wish to have reserved f
122. pe y or n x inkey if x y then input Enter concentration of new solution conc_soln end if prep_sam The above procedure segment provides a pause in which the operator can change solutions if desired If the value of x indicates that this has been done input of information is requested before the procedure continues with the sub procedure prepare_samples See the description of the if state ment readkey The readkey keyboard function provides a related facility for operator control It allows the procedure to continue without pause unless a key has been pressed since the last time the keyboard buffer was read If no key has been pressed the value of the readkey function is the null string The following procedure will continue to process samples until the operator presses a key The system will not save the value of the key pressed procedure rdky_dem while readkey display Press any key to stop process end while end procedure If the value of the key pressed is important use readkey as in the following procedure rdky_sav until x lt gt display Press a key to stop process x readkey end until display The key pressed was x end procedure 8 86 4 30 Printing print desired output print sereen The print statement functions exactly like the display statement except that its output goes to the printer rather than the monitor screen See the discussion
123. r The Serial Communication Facility allows communication with external devices via RS232 ports It is the basis of all communication between the MasterLab software and external devices 1 5 The Compiler is embedded in the Editor After you create a procedure it is automatically compiled into an intermediate form before it is stored on disk This decreases run time when the procedure is executed The Interpreter interprets the statements of the compiled procedure in sequence when yourun it As each statement is interpreted the appropriate action occurs The Structure of PERL Applications Programs A PERL procedure like any other consists of a series of statements As an example consider the procedure below PERL does not use line numbers and they are included here only for reference Ref No 1 2 3 eoon m me 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Program Lines procedure demoprog dim weight 40 for i 1 to 25 test_tubes i parallel go_to_syringe fill syr_5m1 end parallel dispense_5m1 go_to_mixer mixer_on set timer 1 for 15 seconds wait for timer 1 mixer_off weight i weigh_sample if wt i lt 0 8 then dised_tb else J proc_smp end if next i end procedure Comments Procedure statement begins the procedure Dimensions array variable i Line 3 begins an action repeated 25 times The end of this is at line 21 Removes a tube from location i in the rack named test_tubes Li
124. r input if readkey then for i 1 to 100 from keyboard but x readkey does not pause if if x lt gt then none is input break else process end if next i Right characters right x n x brink returns the display right x 3 right n charac ink ters String returns str x display str 365 a character 365 constant which corresponds to a numeric one Value Gives the val x temp 25 C numeric value of display val temp a character 25 000 string 8 86 4 8 PERL STATEMENTS This section deseribes the statements available in PERL grouped according to function The following alphabetical listing gives the page number of each description You will find a brief summary of the format of each statement and a definition of its use in the Reference Guide to PERL at the back of this manual append var to filename page 4 40 as page 4 39 break page 4 37 ease var or case expr page 4 32 clear page 4 24 close page 4 18 elose filename page 4 40 continuous page 4 19 eursor h line no v column no page 4 24 date page 4 43 day page 4 43 default page 4 32 define var as port name page 4 39 devices page 4 17 dim var i page 4 36 display desired output page 4 24 display devices page 4 17 dos page 4 13 down distance page 4 18 8 86 else end procedure eof 4 9 page 4 31 page 4 11 page 4 42 for var expression to expressi
125. r old directory version 1 50 or 1 58 in a back up file called PERL15X DIR It converts the ROBOT 999 file to a file called ROBOT HOM Important The structure of the system configuration file is different in PERL 1 60 Before using your new software reconfigure your system by running the CONFIG program that came with PERL version 1 60 See Creating the System Configuration File in Section 2 of your PERL Instructions 2 SYSTEM COMMANDS SETTING UP YOUR PERL DISKS Backing up DOS and PERL Disks One Time Only You should make a back up copies of your PERL disks for everyday use so that your master copy can be stored You will find it a convenience to have a copy of the most frequently used DOS commands on the same diskette that contains PERL The following procedure copies both DOS and PERL onto a single disk After you have made this disk use it with the procedure under Loading the PERL Work Disk whenever you wish to load PERL 1 2 3 4 With power to the System Controller IBM PC turned off insert the DOS diskette into drive A Turn the Controller on If your System Controller is already on insert the DOS diskette and then reset the Controller by pressing CTRL ALT and DEL simultaneously When the date is displayed press Enter When the time is displayed press Enter again You should set the date and time but you will do so when you boot your new DOS PERL diskette in the next section When t
126. ransient change in one of the inputs to the device interface It returns a value of 0 if no change has occurred a value of 1 indicates a change A PERL procedure must execute the difference command once to arm it before actually looking for a change Once the command is armed it can be used for as long as the device interface continues to be powered When you highlight Differences on the device interface options menu and press Enter the menu shown in Figure 3 15 will appear Differences Device Interface Teach Module Name a Difference Command Execute a Difference Command State of Difference FsHelp F7eQuit FB Rkup Fp F19 Dn Figure 3 15 Difference Menu 8 86 3 38 Name Difference Command An difference command causes the system to check the status of one of the twelve inputs You could have such a command for each input to which a module is connected 1 2 3 4 Highlight Name Difference Command on the Differences menu Press Enter A list of the twelve inputs will appear The cursor is positioned at input 1 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the name of the switch which is to be used in the command Press Enter You will be prompted to type in a command name Type in a name having up to 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example Command Name diff_1 Press Enter Your command will be
127. rce Duration 15 Note Robot hands vary in the Force Duration needed so you may need to try several values to find the correct one for your robot In general a larger value makes the hand movements coarser a smaller value makes the movements finer but may not make the gripper open or close at all When you have entered all three values the gripper menu will return Press F8 Bkup to return to the robot options menu Highlight Define a Rack on the robot Teach Program options menu Press Enter A prompt will ask you whether the rack to be taught is a pipette rack 8 86 3 4 5 6 7 3 20 Type n to indicate this is not a pipette rack The screen shown in Figure 3 7 will appear indicating the three locations A B and C you must teach the robot and asking you for the name of the rack Type in a name for example Rack Name stack2 Press Enter The next screen contains the following instructions Position the Robot to Tube Position A Press the ENTER Key to Compute X Y Z Coordinates To accomplish this a Turn on the Teach Pendant using the ON OFF switch on the top See Figure 3 3 b Use the six X Y and Z touch pad keys in the top three rows of the right column to move the robot into position so the grippers can grasp the top item in the stack Figure 3 4 shows the direction of motion initiated by the X Y and Z keys c Use the O pen and C lose touch pad keys at the bottom of t
128. re For example after loading a sample into an LC injector the robot can go on to prepare the next sample without waiting when the instrument is ready the sample is injected On the other hand if the action command is to turn off a shaker table the robot will have to wait until the table has been turned off before it can access the table Important If the system executes any other device interface command while waiting for the input which triggers the input controlled action command the latter will be overwritten and will never be executed 1 Highlight Name Input Controlled Action Command on the Switeh Outputs menu Press Enter A list of the twelve inputs will appear at the left of the screen The cursor is positioned at the first 2 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the cursor to the name of the input which is to be used in the command Press Enter 3 At the bottom left of the sereen highlight the state of the input which will trigger the action to occur HIGH or LOW Press Enter A list of the available outputs will appear at the right of the screen 4 Highlight the output either AC outlet alarm or switch output that you want the command to affect Press Enter 5 Change the highlighting on the ON OFF indicator for AC outlets and alarm or the OPEN CLOSE indicator for switch outputs to the setting you want the command to establish 8 86 3 42 6 The
129. readkey Reads from a defined serial port into the buffer named var 4 39 receive var redirect input from device or to device Changes the standard input or output device until the next redirect statement 4 28 relative x y z p r Moves the robot relative to its present position The arguments specify m in the x y and z directions and degrees of pitch and roll 4 18 rem comment Begins a comment Use rem at the beginning of a line or to append a comment to the end of a line 4 11 rewind filename After reading or writing to a file return to the beginning 4 40 Writes the Directory in memory to the disk file PERL DIR 4 14 screen See print screen 4 30 Writes the contents of buffer var to a defined serial port 4 39 send var set timer no for quantity of time type of time Sets one of the 10 software timers 4 20 PERL STATEMENTS The number at the end of each definition is the page where you will find detailed instructions for using the statement Function Definition Function Definition speed integer or variable up distance Move the robot up from its Sets the speed of the present position a specified robot 0 is slowest 9 is distance 4 18 fastest 4 19 use device name step See for 4 34 Tells which of two similar modules e g robots is to be stop Aborts procedure used 4 17 execution and r
130. reated a command you can use the Execute Command option to see if the command functions as you intended 1 Highlight Execute Command on the A C Outlets menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter the name of a command 2 Type the name of the command you wish to execute for example Command Name mixer_off 3 Press Enter The command will be executed You may proceed to enter another command to be executed or you may use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the A C Outlets menu Using the Alarm Program There is an alarm permanently installed in the device interface Applications programs can command that alarm to sound when a certain condition occurs x inst_not_ready if x 1 then sound_alarm end if When you highlight Alarm on the device interface options menu and press Enter the menu shown in Figure 3 14 will appear Manual Control of Alarm The Manual Control option can be used to set an alarm without using a named command 1 Highlight Manual Control of Alarm on the Alarm menu and press Enter The present ON OFF status of the alarm will be given 8 86 2 3 3 36 Device Interface Teach Module Name Alarm Command Execute Alarm Command Manual Control of Alarm F6 Help F7 Quit F6 Bkup F9 Up Fi0 Dn Figure 3 14 Alarm Menu Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn function keys to move the ON OFF indicator to the setting you need for your command Press Enter The
131. red continuous positionl position2 f position3 end continuous The continuous command moves the robot through a series of positions without ramping speeds and stopping at each one Only robot commands can appear in the continuous block and they must all be positions that is you can not use a rack or grip pressure command in the block You may however use any number of position commands Warning Do not use continuous with commands which would reverse the robot arm motors at high speed This could damage the robot You may need to perform preventive maintenance more frequently if you use continuous statements speed integer or variable You can control the relative speed of the robot by entering an integer or variable from 0 to 9 The slowest speed is 0 the fastest is 9 8 86 4 20 Timer Statements Set timer no for quantity of time unit of time wait for timer no 906 The PERL software supports 20 internal timers for use in carrying out robotics procedures You may set these timers individually by number for the desired length of time in either minutes or seconds For example set timer 1 for 5 minutes set timer 2 for 60 seconds There is in effect no limit on the amount of time you can set expressed in minutes or seconds You can also use variables for the timer numbers and times provided the values of the variables are within the range of valid numbers set timer n for
132. ringe about 5 seconds of time whenever it has to fill or empty procedure dispense for i 1 to 40 empties i under_disp mid_dispenser_1 mid_dispenser_2 at_dispenser zero_plunger set timer 1 for 5 seconds wait for timer 1 mid_dispenser_2 mid_dispenser_1 under_disp empties i back next i end procedure Using a Syringe Variable A syringe variable is a variable name which you store in the PERL directory by means of the syringe Teach Program It becomes a reserved word whose only permitted use in programs is to stand for a syringe plunger position parameter i e a volume The procedure which follows assumes that you have named and stored a syringe variable called syr_1_vol The procedure fills syringe_1 with 5 ml of liquid then dispenses 0 2 ml of that liquid to each of 25 test tubes If the tube numbers 1 to 25 are represented by i then you must define a variable a for example such that a 5 00 0 2 i Then your syringe variable syr_1_ vol would be equal to a The PERL syntax for this is syr_1_vola Those two lines would be used in a procedure similar to the one below They eause the syringe plunger to be depressed 0 2 ml farther each time the loop in the procedure is executed thus dispensing the reagent procedure use_var valve_input fill_syr_5ml valve output for i 1 to 25 sample i under_disp mid_dispenser_1 mid_dispenser_2 at_dispenser Mixing a 5 00 0 2 i syr_l_vola set timer 1 for 5 se
133. rocedure procedure mix_samp ete 2 Create a procedure for loading the file created in 1 above Give ita name for example ge_libr It will use the library command and be similar to the following procedure ge_libr library fill_syr end procedure 3 In your final PERL procedure similar to ge_prep insert a line near the beginning which executes the procedure from 2 above loading all the procedures needed ge_libr SOME SAMPLE PROCEDURES This section contains examples of procedures which perform some of the common procedures carried out by modules of the MasterLab System Although you will have to modify them for your particular purposes they may save you some programming time Important Except for a rare coincidence the Directory in your system will not contain the user created commands in these procedures Be sure you use the Teach Programs to create such commands before you attempt to use them 6 11 Getting Tubes from a Rack and Returning Them The Define a Rack option of the robot Teach Program should be used to name and describe each rack in your system The sample procedures which follow in this section will assume a system which contains a 40 tube rack called sample a 40 tube rack called empties and a 40 tube vial rack called vial The format of the command to get a tube from a rack is rackname i where i is the number of the location of the tube in the rack See Section 3 on defin
134. rogram In the example above the stack space is 10 000 bytes the directory size 3000 and the program size 6000 You can allocate all the available memory in your computer if you want except for approximately 310K for PERL itself version 1 60 In addition to the d and p flags for setting directory and program space you can set several other flags in PERL BAT to modify start up conditions In the example above the r flag indicates that a procedure called test is to run immediately after start up Table 2 1 lists the available flags If you want to change the default conditions load PERL BAT into the PERL Editor see Section 5 Use the Editor to change the flags in the third line of the file TABLE 2 1 FLAGS WHICH MODIFY PERL START UP CONDITIONS Flag Explanation Example e Execute a command immediately edisplay devices d Set directory size d16 i Set standard input device ioldfile Defaults to console con 1 Set device in which log is kept lthursfile log Defaults to console con o Set standard output device oprinter Defaults to console con p Set program size p6000 r Run a procedure immediately rrobt_tst None Set stack size perl 1000 8 86 2 16 THE DIRECT COMMAND PROCESSOR The direct command processor DCP is in control whenever the PERL gt prompt is displayed It allows you to execute any commands that you have defined or that are a part of PERL Simply type in a command or a pro
135. rogram is available in PERL for each of these modules The Teach Programs allow you to create new commands such as go to mixer in the laboratory and store them for use in applications programs called procedures The robot learns through a simple interactive procedure the location specified by go_to_mixer It goes to that location whenever it encounters the command in a PERL procedure In the same way the syringe the balance and other devices can be taught the commands necessary in order for them to accomplish their tasks Other modules the mixer and the crimping station for example are shown in Figure 1 1 connected to the device interface The device interface can monitor logic inputs from the crimping station and ean turn the mixer or the crimping jaws on and off Thus it is the device interface Teach Program which is used to create the commands which integrate such modules into the system Finally there are modules which are simply locations to which the robot hand must reach These are shown at the bottom of the diagram in 1 2 Figure 1 1 Racks dispensing probes and also the mixer and crimping station are examples of such locations The robot Teach Program is used to teach the robot the necessary interactions with these modules It is the PERL Teach Programs which are in fact responsible for the flexi bility of the MasterLab System You can easily add modules to the system to meet your needs because you can create co
136. s Force to Close 0 7 Foree to Hold 0 7 Force Duration 0 99 8 86 3 15 c Type a value for each parameter pressing Enter after each one The recommended values are Force to Close 3 Force to Hold 0 _ Yd Force Duration 15 Vilkai ew i cor te ten beso g Bare ra Mie al Note Robot hands vary in the Force Duration needed so you may need to try several values to find the correct one oroe for your robot In general a larger value makes the hand movements coarser a smaller value makes movements finer but may not make the gripper open or close at all When you have entered all three values the gripper menu will return 1 Press F8 Bkup to return to the robot options menu 2 Highlight Define a Rack on the robot Teach Program options menu Press Enter A prompt will ask you whether the rack to be taught is a pipette rack 3 Typen to indicate this is not a pipette rack The sereen shown in Figure 3 7 will appear indicating the three locations A B and C you must teach the robot and asking you for the name of the rack Define a Rack Robot Teach Module F6 Help F7 Quit F8 Bkup F9 Up F10 Dn Figure 3 7 The Define a Rack Initial Screen 8 86 4 5 6 7 3 16 Type in a name for example Rack Name big_tubes Press Enter The next sereen contains the following instructions Position the Robot to Tube Position A Press the ENTER Key to Compute X Y Z Coordinates To acc
137. s an advanced language Teach Programs exist for each of the programmable modules of the MasterLab System the robot the device interface the syringe the bar code reader and the balance The remainder of this introductory section explains what must be done before you can use the Teach Programs and describes in general the interactive teaching process they employ The major portion of Section 3 contains specifie instructions for using four of the Teach Programs presently available You will also find in the manual for each accessory module the Teach Program information relevant to that module Before the Teach Programs The System Configuration File Before the MasterLab System can be used the System Configuration Utility must be used to create a system configuration file See Section 2 The system configuration file contains the basic information the system must have in order for there to be communication among the various modules In the system configuration file each module has been given a name by which it can be called in commands If there is more than one module of a given kind two syringes for example each one is assigned a separate name The system configuration file contains information on how to initialize each module its port and relevant communications parameters If you have added a module to or deleted one from the system be sure that you have changed the system configuration file accordingly before you attempt t
138. s having to be re initializea Note Your system must have sufficient memory in order to be able to use the DOS mode within PERL To abort PERL and return to DOS type system and press Enter You will then be able to issue DOS commands and to loaa other software DOS COMMANDS The commands discussed below are DOS commands which perform essential housekeeping functions such as formatting and copying disks If you will be doing any saving of programs and or files on disk you will need these commands Be aware however that much more information is available to you about these and many other DOS commands in the Disk Operating System manual A2 2 In the command formats which follow parameters shown in square brackets are optional The parameter symbolized by d is the disk drive and may be entered in the command line as either A the left drive or B the right drive You may have copied one or more of these commands onto your PERL DOS work disk The others are on your DOS disk COPY Copies a file to another or the same diskette The new file may be given a different name Copy with the same filename COPY a filename a If the disk drives are not specifiea the tile will be copiea to the current directory of the aefault arive The source arive and the target arive must be aitferent since the new ana ola filenames are the same Example COPY B MY PROG A Copy with a different filename COPY d file
139. se the Add a Module option to return the module to the file 8 86 3 2 13 To store the modified system configuration file on your data disk and return to the DOS environment press the Quit function key F7 The system queries Save the current modifications y n Press y to save the modified file n to retain the previous set of modules Displaying Module Information To display the communications parameters for any module that is already present on the system proceed as follows 1 2 Highlight the option labeled Display Module Information and press the Enter key A list of the modules which are configured for use with the MasterLab System appears on the screen To display information for any of the modules listed highlight the module name and press the Enter key A display similar to that shown below appears on the screen Module Information PERL Configuration Utility V1 0 Port Type RS 232 Port Mnemonic COMI Handshaking Yes Baud Rate 9600 Parity Even Stop Bits 1 Data Bits 7 Port Timeout 10 seconds Module Name ROBOTI Module Type Robot Initialized On Start up Init Sequence Input Terminator lt CR gt Output Teminator lt CR gt lt LF gt Refer to Adding a Module above for information about the individual items in this list 8 86 3 4 2 14 To display information for the other modules on the system a Press the Enter key to redisplay the list of modules presentl
140. seces 3 13 The Define a Rack Initial Sereen ec ce eee ee ee ceseees 3 15 Syringe Valve Positions Front View eeeceeee esseere 3 22 Syringe Parameter Sereen eaccsscessossaas EETTETET 3 23 Name Valve Command Sereen eeeeeeeee eesosssecoso oe 3 25 Switeh Output Menu ARE eR om eee eT ere 3 29 Inputs Menu 04S aE RERLORERERE EEEE EIA esossee 3 31 AC Outlets Menu vod seetecseeseses seovces seeeeoes 3 34 Alarm Menu occccccccccccsccsccsscascescaccccsceesesns 3 36 Difference Menu EPERE EO AEEA ssscesses 3 37 Input Controlled Actions Menu sane eeccesens n 3 40 8 86 ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 5 1 PERL Editor Initial Sereen s sessesessesos ieee ee ee 5 2 Edit Commands Menu Screen sceceeeccaee ere erik i 6 1 Valve Positions During Syringe Operation e es 6 2 Getting a Tube froma Rack seeeeee eee 6 3 Mixing E EE esssesosaoe 6 4 Weighing ccccevecccvccccscescnscess esssesee 8 86 esessosessoo seraa eee eee TABLES Table No Page 2 1 Flags Which Modify PERL Start up Conditions 05 2 15 3 1 Typical User Created Commands cssceccceeeeees E 3 2 3 2 Typical Device Interface Commands s ssesesssesesesocso 3 28 4 1 Data Types Im PERL sie sssie sein enr an aa yews eat aes ins 4 3 4 2 Arithmetic Operators israr nessie niaaa cceseescettncrace 4 3 4 3 Relational and Logical Operators seeeeceeseeeenes 4 4 4 4 Numeric Functions
141. see USING THIS MANUAL EEEE ET Organization sessesesssos wa ere E E A Conventions ssssense Tere ere ee ee eee ra oe 2 SYSTEM COMMANDS ccc cece ccc cece eect eeneceee Backing up DOS and PERL Disks One Time Only Loading the PERL DOS Work Disk cseeeee Creating a Data Disk eee eee eee e ce eeeeeeeee CREATING THE SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FILE Introduction essere nisa ceri ee Seale nae aes tadalas Loading Confit sere oie ss0is eoad sl r See aleve eee oe cereare 1 7 1 7 1 7 Section CONTENTS Page Adding a Module s sesssesssocsecsoococsesooseos 2 5 Changing a Module cecceceececccceceecereece e 2 11 Deleting a Module esssessoseseosecesessooss vasan 2 12 Displaying Module Information ccccceeceesvee 2 13 LOADING PERL 2 cece cece cc cece nce ccc ceeceseesees 2 14 Default Conditions at Start up sssessossseseseso 2 15 THE DIRECT COMMAND PROCESSOR eesseesrssssoses 2 16 PRE DEFINED COMMANDS sessssssesesees EET 2516 THE DCP SCREEN EDITOR suessssneessesoosensossooee 2 19 FUNCTION KEYS AVAILABLE ON THE PERL MAIN SCREEN oie given ee Wea are a a eee Ate Se es 2 19 THE PERL DIRECTORY ceececsecceeccees esesseseee 2 20 LEAVING PERL oeccccccrcccccccccsscccccacesessesses 2722 3 THE TEACH PROGRAMS 00 essosesesosesassese 3 1 File esessssseo Daana E ES sssossasocossosososee 3 1 The Interactive Teaching Process
142. sor statement The monitor sereen is 80 vertical columns wide and 23 horizontal rows high The upper left corner of the screen is cursor position 1 1 the lower right is position 23 80 The statement cursor 5 1 will place the cursor on the first space of the fifth line You may use an expression in place of a line number the system will evaluate the expression and place the cursor accordingly cursor 2 x 3 2 y As a procedure proceeds messages will accumulate on the sereen The elear statement which requires no arguments allows you to remove all the accumulated displays from the screen The input statement allows the operator to type in information from the keyboard as a procedure is running When the system encounters an input statement it waits for an entry The value of the typed entry numeric or character is assigned to the variable in the input statement input num_samples would result in the question mark prompt The typed entry 25 followed by a earriage return to signal the end of the response assigns the value 25 0000 to the variable num_samples 8 86 4 26 It is usually helpful to display a prompt which tells the operator what sort of response the system expects The previous example could have used the statement input Total number of samples num_samples Only one prompt and one variable response are allowed in each input statement Note that the statement in the preceding paragraph is simil
143. splay at the bottom of the sereen to see whether the compiler is ON or OFF Press F7 and use the commands menu to ehange the ON OFF status if necessary Press Enter 8 86 5 5 To edit an existing text file Press F2 Press F7 Highlight Load from Disk when prompted give the filename Press Enter If the compiler is on use the commands menu to turn it off To edit an existing procedure file Press F2 Press F7 Highlight Load from Disk when prompted give the filename Press Enter If the compiler is off turn it on Editing a Procedure The section which follows directs you to access the PERL Editor type in a sample procedure and then modify it using the Editor commands Doing so will allow you to experience the editing process for yourself 1 Using the procedure given above for entering the Editor to create a new procedure access the PERL Editor 2 Type the following procedure one line at a time pressing Enter after each line You can type in upper case lower case or mixed cases If you make an error before pressing Enter you can backspace to correct it If you press Enter before correcting the error use the procedure in 3 on the next page to correct it Note Line numbers are included for convenience in the following discussion They are not used in PERL procedures 1 procedure mix_samp 2 above_mixer 3 turn_on_mixer 4 down_5em 5 open_gripper 6 up_3em 7 set timer 1 for 30 seconds
144. ssigned to the device in the system configuration file The comma and the parentheses are required As an example suppose you wanted to input three characters from a Lambda 4C spectrophotometer which was named L4C in CONFIG The string which is input is to be assigned to the variable d The procedure would contain the line d input L4C 3 The number of characters must be more than zero and less than or equal to 512 8 86 4 41 Using Files on Disk write ark to filename 7 append var to filename read var from filename rewind filensme close filename PERL uses sequential data files to store data such as sample weights acquired during automated sample preparation procedures on disk You may write data to a new file or append it to an existing one The stored data can later be read from the file and processed by PERL procedures or by other software available for the IBM PC The rules for using file names in PERL are as follows The filename must have no more than 8 characters When used as an argument in a command the filename must be in quotes The filename argument in a command may be a string constant such as datafile PERL supports use of DOS path names for multiple directories on a single disk For example to write data to a file called july on a directory called data which is immediately off the root use write a to data july See Chapter 5 in your DOS manual for an e
145. stored in the PERL directory You may proceed to move the cursor to another switch and name another command or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Differences menu Note The device interface Difference commands are used in applications procedures to monitor conditions For example the following procedure segment arms the diff_1 command assigning its value 0 when first armed to the variable x Later the procedure uses the command again If a change has occurred so that the value is 1 an error routine will be executed x diff_1 rem Variable x receives value of diff_1 while x 0 x diff_1 get_samp process end while if x 1 then sound_alarm err_rtn end if 8 86 3 39 GA Execute Difference Command After you have created a command you can use the Execute Difference Command option to see if it functions as you intended 1 Highlight Execute Difference Command on the Differences menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter the name of a command 2 Type the name of the command you wish to execute for example Command Name diff_4 3 Press Enter The state of the input used in the command will be reported It will be either 0 if no change has occurred or 1 if there has been a change The message Please Press the ENTER Key to Continue will appear 4 Press Enter to enter another command to be executed or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Differences menu or F7 Quit to
146. t 3 3 ETX lt ETX gt lt CTRLC gt 4 4 EOT lt EOT gt lt CTRLD gt 5 5 ENG lt ENQ gt lt CTRLE gt 6 6 ACK lt ACK gt lt CTRLF gt 7 7 BEL lt BEL gt lt CTRLG gt 8 8 BS lt BS gt lt CTRLH gt 9 9 HT lt HT gt lt CTRLP 1g A LF lt LF gt lt CTRLJ gt 11 B VT lt VT gt lt CTRLK gt 12 C FF lt FF gt lt CTRLL gt 13 D CR lt CR gt lt CTRLM gt 14 E so lt SO gt lt CTRLN gt 15 F SI lt SI gt lt CTRLO gt 16 19 DLE lt DLE gt lt CTRLP gt 17 11 DCI lt DC1 gt lt CTRLQ gt 18 12 DC2 lt DC2 gt lt CTRLR gt 19 13 DC3 lt DC3 gt lt CTRLS gt 20 14 DC4 lt DC4 gt lt CTRLT gt 21 15 NAK lt NAK gt lt CTRLU gt 22 16 SYN lt S YN gt lt CTRLV gt 23 17 ETB lt ETB gt lt CTRLW gt 24 18 CAN lt CAN gt lt CTRLX gt 25 19 EM lt EM gt lt CTRLY gt 26 1A SUB lt SUB gt lt CTRLZ gt 27 1B ESC lt ESC gt 28 1c FS lt FS gt 29 1D Gs lt GS gt 39 1E RS lt RS gt 31 1F US lt US gt 32 29 SP lt SP gt lt BLANK gt 127 3F DEL lt DEL gt 8 86 APPENDIX 4 SAMPLE PERL APPLICATION MAIN PROCEDURE DISKIO ren rem rem rem rem rem rem rem rem This example is of PERL s disk I O capabilities as well as how to build a turnkey PERL application This procedure is the main procedure of our application It builds a menu from which the user may select to write to disk or to read from disk what was previously written There is a third option which is to EXIT from this procedure and return to PERL
147. t Steps 5 through 10 establish parameters which are defaulted for standard MasterLab System modules If the type of module you are adding was listed on the Config Add a Module menu proceed to step 11 If you entered All Other Modules at step 1 refer to the manual provided with the module to determine its communications requirements 5 The next prompt displayed is Handshaking and two options Yes and No are available Highlight YES if the module supports hardware handshaking through the Clear to Send CTS Data Terminal Ready DTR Data Set Ready DSR and Request to Send RTS lines 8 86 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 8 Highlight NO if the handshake is not supported Press Enter to complete this selection The system next requests you to select the baud rate at which the module receives and transmits data The choices range from 50 to 9600 baud Highlight the value at which the module receives and transmits data and press Enter The system prompts for a parity selection The three options are No Parity Odd Parity Even Parity Highlight the option used by the module and press the Enter key The system prompts for the number of stop bits that is the number of bits terminating each character sent The options are One Stop Bit Two Stop Bits Highlight the option required by the module and press the Enter key The system prompts for the number of data bits transmitted by the module The options avai
148. t_tube trepeats procedure with next tube end if end procedure It is relatively unlikely that the comparison will give an exact equality so you should use lt lt gt gt or ranges in such comparisons To name a Gripper Position Read command proceed as follows 1 Highlight Name a Gripper Position Read on the gripper options menu 8 86 3 12 2 Press Enter You will be prompted to enter a command name 3 Type in the name of the command you wish to create The name must contain no more than 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example command name grip _posn 4 Press Enter The command name will be stored in the PERL Directory The gripper options menu will return 5 Proceed to choose another gripper option or press F8 Bkup to return to the robot options menu Defining a Rack The Define a Rack Teach Program teaches the robot to remove and replace objects which are stored in evenly spaced rows and columns The most obvious use for defining racks is with the MasterLab System test tube and vial racks after the Teach Program shows the robot three of the corner locations the robot can interact with each of the locations in the rack However there are many other instances in which you can use this Teach Program You can use it with other kinds of racks tilted racks and pipette tip racks for example Racks may be tilted at any angle as long as
149. ted steps 1 3 you may repeat them to move to a different position Otherwise press F8 Bkup to return to the robot Teach Program options menu If you wish to give the present position a name choose the Name a Position option Naming a Position The Name a Position option assigns a name to the present position of the robot When you then use that name in a PERL procedure the robot will move to that position 1 2 3 4 5 6 Highlight Name a Position in the robot Teach Program options menu The screen will prompt Position Name Type in a name containing up to 16 characters none of which are spaces The first character must be alphabetic Do not press ENTER unless you wish to assign this name to the present position of the robot If you wish to move the robot assigning the name to a new position turn on the Teach Pendant see Figure 3 3 Move the robot as in the section on Moving the Robot above When the robot is in the position you wish to name turn off the Teach Pendant The system will not transfer the position data with the pendant on Press Enter The system will store the name in the PERL directory The Position Name prompt will reappear Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each position you want to teach Press F8 Bkup when you are ready to return to the robot Teach Program options menu Note If you are teaching the robot to place a test tube in a test tube holder or the mixer yo
150. tem Configuration Utility a procedure might contain the line use robot_moe near the beginning All subsequent commands for a robot would go to robot_moe If a later subroutine were to use the other robot the statement use robot_manny would signal the change to the system Note Syringe commands are associated by the system with the name of the particular syringe to which they were taught Thus you do not need to use the use command for syringes However if you change the module name the command may not function properly init device name The init command causes the device named in the command to be initial ized following the initialization sequence established for that device in the system configuration file for example init robot_ramon A display devices This command generates a sereen display of the configurations of all the devices listed in the system configuration file 8 86 4 18 Robot Control These two commands open and close the robot grippers Important There is also a close filename command in PERL Be sure to always include the filename when you want to close a file because close alone will close the grippers On the other hand if you try to use close grippers as a robot control command the system will search for a file named grippers up distance down distance relative x y zZ p r The up down and relative commands all move the robot a spe
151. the PERL main screen THE SYRINGE TEACH PROGRAM The syringe module has four conditions which can vary total syringe volume The available syringes are of volumes 50 100 250 and 500 uL and 1 5 and 10 mL plunger position the volume marking at which the plunger rests speed May be set from 1 to 15 A setting of 1 is 1 7 seconds per full plunger stroke Settings of from 2 to 15 are that number of seconds per full stroke valve position set for either input or output See Figure 3 8 If your unit is the dual syringe model the conditions can vary on each of the two syringes except that the valves in both will always be in the same position The two possible valve positions are illustrated in Figure 3 8 8 86 3 22 The Teach Program for the syringe allows you to set all four parameters as you wish then assign a name to that situation e g syr_filled_5ml Or you can use the Name Valve Command option to set only the valve position without moving the plun er You may also give a name to a syringe variable which PERL will always interpret as referring to a syringe plunger position You can then allow the value of that variable to inerease or decrease in a program as sample is drawn in or dispensed by the syringe A command or variable you teach to a syringe is associated in the Directory with the module name of that syringe This is true even if the syringes are daisy chained with more than one connect
152. the Editor to create a file which contains all the procedures you will need in your overall procedure Do this by loading them into the Editor in sequence The system will use the name of the first procedure you load as the library name procedure fill_syr end procedure procedure disp_liq end procedure procedure mix_samp ete Create a procedure for loading the file created in 1 above Give it a name for example ge_libr It will use the library command and be similar to the following procedure ge_libr library fill_syr end procedure In your main PERL procedure insert a line near the beginning which executes the procedure from 2 above loading all the procedures needed ge_libr 8 86 If you want to have a record of everything which appears on the screen as a debugging tool for example use the log command It creates a file on disk which contains all sereen output For example to create a file called monday log type log monday log and press Enter When you want to turn off the log function type log con and press Enter 8 86 4 17 Device Commands use device name When the system contains more than one device of a given type procedures must specify which one is to be used The use statement names the device which the system is to use by default until it encounters another use state ment If there were two robots which had been named robot_manny and robot_moe in the Sys
153. the communications options for the module n to abort the storage operation If you type y the communications parameters selected for the module will be stored on your data disk in the system configuration file named PERL SCF 8 86 2 11 Changing a Module With Config you can change the communications parameters assigned to any module on the system To change a module proceed as follows 1 Use the Up and Dn keys F9 and F10 to highlight the option on the main menu of Config labeled Change a Module and press the Enter key A list of all the modules presently in the system configuration file is displayed on the screen 2 Highlight the name of the module whose communications parameters you wish to change and press the Enter key The present parameter settings for the device are displayed on the sereen see example below Port Type RS 232 Port Mnemonic COM Handshaking Yes Baud Rate 9600 Parity Even Stop Bits 1 Data Bits 7 Port Timeout 10 seconds Module Name Instrument Module Type Other Device Initialized On Start up Init Sequence Input Terminator lt CR gt lt LF gt Output Terminator lt CR gt 3 Use the Dn function key F10 to move the cursor to the first parameter that you wish to change 4 Press the Enter key to delete the current entry for the parameter 5 a If the parameter requires a typed entry type the desired entry and press the Enter key b If the parameter requires a selection
154. the steps in planning the procedure for a gas chromatography sample preparation The overall task is to dilute 0 2 ml of each sample with 1 8 ml of solvent place 1 ml aliquots of the diluted samples in vials seal the vials and place them in an autosampler Your first planning step is to identify the smaller tasks in this operation Identifying the Procedures Needed In order to carry out the overall task defined in the last section the system will have to perform the following tasks for each sample vial on The robot gets a test tube of sample and brings it to the syringe The syringe draws in 1 8 ml solvent and 0 2 ml sample The robot returns the sample tube to the rack The robot picks up an empty test tube from another rack The robot takes the test tube to the syringe dispensing stand The syringe adds 0 2 ml of sample and 1 8 m1 of solvent to the tube The robot takes the test tube to the mixer The mixer mixes the test tube contents 6 3 9 The robot retrieves the tube from the mixer 10 The robot takes the tube to the dispensing stand where 1 ml of diluted sample is withdrawn 11 The robot returns the test tube to its rack 12 The robot picks up a sample vial and cap from the vial rack 13 The robot takes the vial to the crimper where the cap is left at the vacuum station 14 The robot takes the vial to the dispensing stand where the 1 ml aliquot is dispensed 15 The robot takes the vial to the vacuum stat
155. u must teach it several at least two intermediate positions between over_holder and in_holder Otherwise the robot hand will describe an are between these two extreme positions and the test tube may break against the side of the holder Since the Define a Rack option automatically teaches all the necessary intermediate positions you can save teaching time by defining a holder or mixer as a rack with 1 eolumn and 1 row 8 86 Moving to a Position If you have already assigned a name to a position you can move the robot to it in any one of three ways by typing in the position name from the PERL main menu and pressing Enter by highlighting the name in the PERL Directory and pressing Enter by selecting the Move to a Position option in the robot Teach Program To use the Teach Program to go to a named position proceed as follows 1 Highlight Move to a Position in the robot Teach Program options menu The sereen will prompt you Position Name 2 Type in the name and press Enter The robot will move to the named position 3 You may enter another position name or use F8 Bkup to return to the robot Teach Program options menu Positioning the Gripper When you assign a name to a robot position the stored position includes all parameters except the position of the grippers You must enter this in a separate step The gripper position has two components the grip pressure and the width of the gripp
156. ules their initialization sequence would be defaulted for you Module Initialization Sequence Explanation Printer lt FF gt lt CR gt Form feed followed by a carriage return Device Interface C Clear module and wait for asterisk to be returned Enter the combination of ASCII and module commands that defines the sequence for your module and press Enter The system prompts for the Input Terminator the ASCII character or sequence of characters used to terminate the response coming from the module to the System Controller IBM PC For example a typical input terminator is a carriage return lt CR gt or a carriage return line feed lt CR gt lt LF gt Enter the ASCII character or sequence of characters for the desired input terminator in angle brackets lt gt and press the Enter key The system prompts for the Output Terminator the ASCII character or the sequence of characters used to terminate a command sent to the module from the System Controller IBM PC For example a typical output terminator for a printer is a carriage return followed by a linefeed that is lt CR gt lt LF gt Enter the ASCII character for the desired terminator in angle brackets lt gt and press the Enter key To store the information just entered for the module on the PERL diskette and return to the DOS environment press the Quit function key F7 The system queries Save the current modifications y n Press y to save
157. ult settings are 4 4 99 Initially you may need to experiment with various settings until you find the ones which grip and hold your containers firmly but without excessive force Type a value for each pressure parameter pressing Enter after each one When you have entered all three values the gripper menu will return Once the grip pressure is set for your containers you will not need to change it again unless you change to a different size or type of container Name the Grip Pressure 1 Highlight Name the Grip Pressure and press Enter The screen will prompt Grip Pressure Name 8 86 2 3 3 10 Type a suitable name up to 16 characters none of which may be spaces for example light_touch and press Enter The system will store the name and you will be returned to the gripper menu Choose another gripper option or press F8 Bkup to return to the robot Teach Program options menu Move the Gripper 1 2 3 Highlight Move the Gripper and press Enter The screen will prompt you Use Left Arrow Key to Open Grippers Use Right Arrow Key to Close Grippers The hand sense facility in your robot allows you to open and close the grippers to whatever width you need for your containers Open or close the grippers as necessary See Figure 3 5 Press F8 Bkup You will be returned to the gripper menu Figure 3 5 Grippers on Robot Hand Closed and Open 8 86 3 11 Nam
158. words Wait and No Wait appear at the bottom of the screen Use the right and left arrow keys to change the highlighting to indicate whether you want PERL to pause and wait for the action to be carried out 7 You will be prompted to type in a command name Type in a name having up to 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example Command Name inst_on 8 Press Enter Your command will be stored in the PERL directory You may proceed to name another command or use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Input Controlled Actions menu Execute Input Controlled Action Command After you have created a command you can use the Execute Command option to see if the command functions as you intended 1 Highlight Execute Input Controlled Action on the Input Controlled Actions menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter the name of a command 2 Type the name of the command you wish to execute for example Command Name inst_off 3 Press Enter The command will be executed You may proceed to enter another command to be executed or you may use the F8 Bkup function key to return to the Input Controlled Actions menu THE BALANCE TEACH PROGRAM The output of a balance is always a measured weight A weigh command is a command to the System Controller to accept this reading so it ean be used as data The commands get_sample_wt weigh_test_tube record_vial_wt all cause t
159. xplanation of directories and path names You can use extensions for example dat on filenames if the file is not to be compiled 8 86 4 42 There is no open filename statement in PERL the software will open the file automatically when necessary You must close the file with a close filename statement however Important The open and close commands without a filename open and close the robot grippers Do not use these words by themselves unless that is what you intend The following procedure segment would store sample weights in a new file called mysampls for i 1 to num_samples way_samp write sampwt i to mysampls prep_sam next i close mysampls It is assumed that way_samp and prep_sam are existing procedures and sampwt is dimensioned Because this is a sequential file the sample weights are written into the file in order separated by carriage returns that is the first record in the file would correspond to the first sample weighed ete If you later wanted to file the weights of another batch of samples into the existing file mysamples the statement append sampwt i to mysamples would be needed This would add the additional weights to the end of the file After the system reads from a file it must rewind the file figuratively to its beginning before it can read the contents again The following procedure reads yourfile rewinds the file then reads the data again for a di
160. y John Wiley and Sons Statements used for input and output of information to various devices e g monitor printer or disk drive These statements are also English words and in many cases are similar to commands you may have encoun tered in using other systems Examples are display read and print 4 2 Statements unique to PERL which are needed to control a robot earrying out laboratory procedures Such statements as set timer and use are typical Statements which have been created through the use of the Teach Programs Typical examples would be get_sample_tube or move to syringe These statements may have up to 16 characters none of which may be spaces The latter restriction accounts for the frequent presence of the underline character This section will be concerned primarily with the first three types of state ment The creation of operator defined statements is described in Section 3 The Teach Programs Arguments Used in PERL Statements With the exception of the operator defined statements created with the Teach Programs and unique to each laboratory over_the_mixer for exam ple most statements in PERL require some additional information called arguments after the word which begins the statement In the statement ormats use device name for variable expression 1 to expression 2 step expression 3 print desired output the parentheses specify arguments required in the us
161. y in the system b Highlight the name of the desired module and press the Enter key If you need to make changes in any parameters use the Change a Module option LOADING PERL 1 2 3 Load the PERL DOS work disk as described earlier With the DOS prompt displayed place your data disk in drive B Type b and press Enter to make drive B the default destination for the files you create with PERL Type perl or the name of the batch file you have created see next page and press Enter The MasterLab devices which initialize at Start up will initialize as requested by the system configuration file The PERL main screen see Figure 2 1 will appear When this screen is displayed the PERL direct command processor is in contro that is any PERL command typed in will be executed In addition the 10 function keys described under Function Keys Available on the PERL Main Screen are active Copyright c 1986 PERL System v1 60 Perkin Elmer Corporation PERL gt Fi Run F2 Edit F3 Teach F4 Dir F Help F7 Quit Figure 2 1 PERL Main Screen 8 86 2 15 Default Conditions at Start up The PERL default conditions are set in the file PERL BAT which runs automatically when you load PERL A listing of this file appears similar to the following echo off verify on perts 710000 93000 D0000 este vi vie yy ye dopat The third line of the file ae the computer memory to be used for stack space directory and p
162. ying the Current Weight 1 Highlight Display Current Weight on the balance options menu 2 Press Enter The current weight being output by the balance is dis played on the sereen You may select another option or press F8 Bkup to return to the Teach Program selection menu 8 86 a 3 44 Naming a Weigh Command 1 2 3 4 5 Highlight Name Weigh Command on the balance options menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter a command name Type in the name of the command you wish to create The name must contain no more than 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example command name get_weight Press Enter The command name will be stored in the PERL Directory Proceed to name another command or press F8 Bkup to return to the balance options menu Executing a Weigh Command After you have created a command you can use the Execute Weigh Command option to see if the command functions as you intended 1 2 3 4 5 Highlight Execute Weigh Command on the balance options menu Press Enter You will be prompted to enter a command name Type in the name of the command you wish to have executed Press Enter The command will be executed and the present weight will be displayed Proceed to type in the name of another command to be executed or press F8 Bkup to return to the balance options menu Naming a Tare Command Sartorius Balances
163. you develop PERL procedures Some of these tools you will never use directly Those with which you do interact are menu driven for ease of use As can be seen in Figure 1 2 you will use the System Configuration Utility to store the configuration of the system in the system configuration file External Devices Stored Commands Teaching Configuration i j Progr System Configuration ams Utility File Serial interpreter Communication e Facility Editor Figure 1 2 The PERL Programming Environment and the Teach Programs to create new stored commands for controlling the system modules You will also use the Editor to create PERL procedures which are compiled by the Compiler and stored When the stored procedure is run the Interpreter uses both the stored commands and the system configuration file to interpret the procedure statements Communication during procedure execution is handled through the Serial Communication Facility The following paragraphs describe more fully the individual components of the PERL environment Tools Used Directly by the Programmer The System Configuration Utility is an interactive program which allows you to describe the configuration of your system It creates a system configuration file PERL SCF which indicates what devices are at what ports the initialization parameters for the ports and devices communication protocols and the spelling of system commands The
164. your procedure by highlighting Save on Disk on the Edit Commands menu and pressing Enter 9 Use the F8 Bkup key to leave the Editor 10 Test your procedure by running it To do this from the PERL main sereen type its name and press Enter or press F1 Run and enter the name 11 When your procedure is running correctly link the needed subproce dures to the main procedure by using the link command for example link ge_prep This will create a file in this ease ge_prep Ink which has priority of execution over the corresponding compiled file ge_prep emp and which will execute more rapidly because the linking is already done However if you want to change a procedure after it has been linked you must either delete the Ink file from disk or execute the link command again to overwrite the existing Ink file THE LIBRARY FACILITY A major PERL procedure uses a number of other procedures as it runs If the system loads each of these procedures from disk as it is needed considerable run time is devoted to waiting for procedures to load You can avoid this problem by using the library facility as follows 1 Use the Editor to create a file which contains all the procedures you will need in your overall procedure Do this by loading them into the Editor in sequence The system will use the name of the first procedure you load as the library name 8 86 procedure fill_syr end procedure procedure disp_liq end p
165. yringe options menu or F7 Quit to return to the PERL main screen Naming a Valve Command A syringe valve command changes the valve position from input to output or the reverse without changing any other syringe parameters For an illustration of the input and output positions see Figure 3 8 1 Highlight Name Valve Command on the syringe Teach Program options menu Press Enter A sereen similar to Figure 3 10 will appear Highlighting will indicate whether the valve is presently set for input or output 2 Use the up and down arrow keys or the F9 Up and F10 Dn keys to highlight the valve position your command is to specify Name Valve Command Syringe Teach Module Valve Pasitions Input Output FosHelp F720uit F8 fikup FIeUp FIB eDD Figure 3 10 Name Valve Command Screen 8 86 3 26 3 Press the Enter key The screen will prompt you for a command name 4 Type a name which contains no more than 16 characters none of which may be spaces The first character must be alphabetic For example you could type Command name valve_in 5 Press Enter Your command name will be stored in the PERL Directory and the syringe Teach Program options will return to the sereen Naming a Syringe Variable A syringe variable is a variable name which you store in the PERL directory by means of the syringe Teach Program It becomes a reserved word whose only permitted use in programs is to stand for a syringe plunger p

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