The smartLab: Experimental and environmental control and monitoring of the chemistry laboratory

Abstract

A suite of software applications was developed in order to provide functionality to monitor and record environmental and experimental data and the associated metadata. A piece of software developed by IBM [1] called the Microbroker was used as middleware to handle the flow of messages containing the monitored data using the MQ telemetry transport [2] (MQTT) format. Methods to send control commands were also employed where allowed by the experimental set up. The software was used to monitor a range of laboratories within the School of Chemistry at the University of Southampton. A number of repository solutions were implemented to build an understanding of what is required for a scalable and interoperable system.

Talk2Lab: The Smart Lab of the Future

“…Frey et al [2] proposed the idea of a fully automated laboratory where different instruments can 'talk to each other'. This idea was built upon by Frey and Robinson [3], and Frey and Wilson [4]; both trials used IBM's middle-ware software, which uses the MQ telemetry transport (MQTT) 1 protocol. MQTT uses the publish-subscribe methodology [5] to link up sensors in different labs to monitor certain conditions remotely.…”

Enhancing research publications using Rich Interactive Narratives

“…The second case study area demonstrates how research publications in natural sciences can be enhanced using RIN. We use the example of a chemistry doctoral thesis [14] to show how experimental and simulation data can be presented dynamically. This takes advantage of the electronic laboratory notebook framework described by Frey [15], developed to allow researchers to use specialized blog software in order to capture their experimental and research process (http://www.labtrove.org/).…”