Matsushima T
Herzenberg Laboratory, Genetics Department, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA.
Proc Int Conf Intell Syst Mol Biol. 1993;1:266-74.
This paper describes a fully distributed biological-object system that supports FACS (Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter) instrumentation. The architecture of the system can be applied to any laboratory automation system that involves distributed instrument control and data management. All component processes of FACS (such as instrument control, protocol design, data analysis, and data visualization), which may run on different machines, are modeled as cooperatively-working "agents." Communication among agents is performed through shared-objects by triggered methods. This shared-object metaphor encapsulates the details of network programming. The system facilitates the annotation of classes with first-order formulae that express logical constraints on objects; these constraints are automatically maintained upon updates. Also, the shared-object communication and polymorphic triggered methods are exploited to produce a homogeneous interface for instrument control.
本文描述了一个支持流式细胞分选仪（Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter，FACS）仪器的全分布式生物对象系统。该系统的架构可应用于任何涉及分布式仪器控制和数据管理的实验室自动化系统。FACS的所有组件进程（如仪器控制、协议设计、数据分析和数据可视化）可能运行在不同的机器上，被建模为协同工作的“代理”。代理之间的通信通过触发方法通过共享对象进行。这种共享对象隐喻封装了网络编程的细节。该系统便于用表达对对象逻辑约束的一阶公式对类进行注释；这些约束在更新时会自动维护。此外，利用共享对象通信和多态触发方法为仪器控制生成一个统一的接口。
