Standardization in Lab Automation: Difference between revisions

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{{Primary sources|date=December 2011}}

=SiLA Consortium=

The '''SiLA consortium''' is a [[Non-profit organization|not-for-profit]] membership organization formed by software suppliers, system integrators and pharma/biotec corporations. This consortium for '''Standardization in Lab Automation''' (SiLA), develops and introduces new device and data interface standards allowing rapid integration of lab [[Automation]] hardware and data management systems. Highly skilled experts of member companies contribute in SiLA′s technical work groups. Membership is open for institutions, corporations and individuals active in the life science lab automation industry. The SiLA consortium provides professional training, support and certification services to suppliers and system integrators implementing SiLA compliant interfaces.

==Mission==

'''SiLA''' is the global initiative to standardize software interfaces in the field of life science research instrumentation. Instigated by the pharmaceutical industry′s need for flexible laboratory automation, the initiative is supported by major device and software suppliers world wide.

==Background==

Understanding the mechanisms of life requires extensive, often repetitive, experimentation. '''Laboratory automation''', therefore, has become instrumental to the progress of the life sciences.

Industry provides commercial laboratory devices to perform increasingly sophisticated tasks. However, combining equipment from different providers to work in concert often proves impossible. Exporting captured data from proprietary software for further analysis can be frustrating or impossible.

This situation leads to a waste of resources: Available equipment needs to be replaced for compatibility reasons, software drivers have to be purchased or developed, and data conversion is time consuming.

Such technical obstacles also limit the complexity of '''integrated laboratory robotic platforms''', and thereby impede the development of higher level autonomous experimentation systems.

SiLA enables researchers to focus on their scientific questions by reducing equipment connectivity effort to a minimum. This is achieved by using proven, tested and maintained documentation and code.

==History==

Advancements seen on the home consumer electronics marked like [[USB]] or [[UPnP]] triggered the idea of applying a similar approach to the laboratory automation environment. Why was it possible to easily upload pictures from any digital camera on any computer but in the same time not even thinkable to replace a lab device (e.g.: a [[Shaker (laboratory)|Shaker]]) of one brand with a Shaker of a different brand? Analyzing the situation led to the conclusion that the incompatibility was a result of missing interface definitions. The idea of a standardized interface based on the '''Common Command Set''' (CCS) concept was born.

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| 2008 / October || Poster at MipTec “Pilot implementation of Common Command Set”

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| 2008 / October || First SiLA Luncheon at MipTec conference. Representatives of major suppliers, pharma/biotech and system integrators confirmed that the time is right for '''SiLA Rapid Integration''' and that they welcome the initiative.

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| 2008 / November || SiLA Kick-Off meeting at Novartis Campus Biovalley Basel with representatives from 20 supplier and 8 pharma companies. SiLA will operate on the platform of Toolpoint for Life Science.

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==Membership==

SiLA has formed a '''not-for-profit membership organisation'''. SiLA requires members to pay annual membership dues. Details on membership classes and related fees can be found [http://www.sila.coop/about-sila/members/sila-membership-classes/ here].

==Organisation Structure==

[[File:SiLA.Board of Directors.full.png|thumb|SiLA board of directors]]

SiLA is a not-for-profit membership corporation with global footprint. Membership is open for institutions, corporations and individuals active in the life science lab automation industry.

The SiLA consortium provides professional training, support and certification services to suppliers and system integrators implementing SiLA compliant interfaces.

==References==

1.* White Paper on Academic SiLA Membership Benefits

<!-- Tech notes to be added or link to SiLA home page -->

==Scope of Standardization==

[[File:SiLA.Scope of Standardization.full.png|thumb|Main scope]]

The SiLA foundation of standards addresses control and data interfaces between devices and process management, LIMS and Enterprise Systems.

==SiLA Standards==

SiLA has developed and released a detailed technical specification of the SiLA Device Control and '''Data Interface Specification''' (DCDIS) and a Common Command Library. The development of the SiLA Data Capture Standard, a standardized format for meta data and result data from microplate readers, has reached the final phase.

A paper describing these three standards in details is under preparation for publication in JALA.

===Device Interface Standard===

[[File:SiLA.Integration level.full.png|thumb|Three supported integraton levels]]

The SiLA device interface standard covers all ISO/OSI levels of the device control interface from physical to application layer.

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By supporting three different integration levels, SiLA provides a unique, standardized interface between lab automation devices and process management systems so that also legacy devices can be integrated in SiLA compliant systems. SiLA compliance can be achieved by providing native, directly embedded SiLA device interfaces or by software only SiLA drivers and/or interface converters. The SiLA Device Control and Data Interface Standard eases and accelerates the integration and adaptation of systems through generic Device Class Interfaces providing Common Command Sets.

===Common Command Library===

By grouping devices of the same functionality device classes can be created. SiLA Common Command Sets define commands for these device classes. SiLA defines the command names, the number of parameters and their names as well as the return data. Since commands and parameters are described in the WSDL documentation tag of the commands web service, a process management software (PMS) can automatically generate a list available commands for each device.

So far SiLA has defined about 30 device classes and a command library with about 100 commands. Commands range from mandatory commands that are needed to make transitions in the state machine, over required commands for the specific device class, to optional commands for which not every device in the device class might provide the functionality. In addition guidelines for the implementation of supplier-specific device commands and parameters are provided.

Some commands are applicable for almost every device class. For example the commands SetParameter, GetParameter, ExecuteMethod are widely used. Also PrepareForOutput and PrepareForInput are common because they enable the transport mechanisms to transfer labware items from device to device. The mandatory commands include operations like Reset, Initialize, Abort and Pause. In addition also locking a device for exclusive use is provided.

==External links==

* [http://www.sila.coop/ SiLA homepage]<br />