Instruments supported

Routes, from least to most effort

Through PyLabRobot

PyLabRobot is an open-source, hardware-agnostic library for liquid handlers and other lab automation devices. Every device it drives becomes an OpenMHP device through plr_device(machine): each public coroutine on the machine becomes an action with parameters read from its signature. Devices in PyLabRobot's catalogue at the time of writing include:

Check PyLabRobot's current documentation for the exact list; it grows monthly. The simulated twin for any PyLabRobot device is its chatterbox backend, which the bundled Flex package uses.

Through SiLA 2

SiLA 2 is the lab-automation industry standard for instrument interfaces. Any instrument with a SiLA 2 server, whether from the vendor or from a driver catalogue, becomes an OpenMHP device through sila_device(host, port, …): properties become signals, one-parameter commands become settings, commands become actions, and observable commands stream progress. SiLA servers exist for instruments from Hamilton, Tecan, Beckman Coulter, Agilent, Eppendorf, Thermo Fisher and many smaller vendors, and for generic classes such as balances, pumps, readers and incubators through community and commercial driver libraries.

How to get one on OpenMHP: list the server's implemented features with the SiLA client, choose the properties and commands you want exposed, and write the binding map shown on the adapters page. Give every setting limits; SiLA does not carry them.

Through MADSci

MADSci, from Argonne National Laboratory, drives self-driving lab workcells through nodes that describe their own actions. The OpenMHP adapter needs no binding map: madsci_node(url) reads the node's actions and state. Node modules published by the MADSci and RPL projects include:

How to get one on OpenMHP: point the adapter at the node's URL and set approval levels for actions that move. A MADSci workcell manager can also act as an OpenMHP host by pointing at the directory.

Through OPC UA and Modbus

OPC UA is how process equipment and PLCs expose themselves: furnaces, environmental chambers, bioreactors, dosing systems, conveyors, and anything behind a Siemens, Beckhoff, Rockwell or Schneider controller. Sartorius bioreactor controllers, Eppendorf and Thermo chambers, and most industrial ovens ship with or can be given an OPC UA server. Modbus devices, including many temperature controllers and power supplies, use the same binding shape with two register callables.

How to get one on OpenMHP: browse the server's node tree, pick the variables to read and write and the methods to call, and write the map shown on the adapters page. PLC safety logic stays primary; OpenMHP limits stop the agent from asking for something unsafe.

Through ROS 2

ROS 2 is where research robotics lives. Arms from Universal Robots, Franka, KUKA, Kinova and Doosan have ROS 2 drivers; so do Robotiq grippers, mobile bases, and most cameras and force sensors. Topics become signals, published topics become settings, action servers become actions with progress from feedback, and a Trigger service becomes the emergency stop.

How to get one on OpenMHP: source your ROS 2 workspace on the bench PC, write the binding map, and put an example goal in the action's examples so agents build correct messages.

Native and serial, today

Instruments that answer text commands over a cable, and therefore fit the no-code serial route, include IKA and Heidolph stirrers and hotplates, Julabo and Huber circulators, Mettler Toledo and Sartorius balances, Harvard Apparatus and New Era syringe pumps, Thorlabs stages and shutters, and many spectrometer and power-supply front ends. If the manual has a command table, the interview can use it.

Contribute a package

A package is a folder: DEVICE.md, descriptor.yaml, driver.py, ideally sim.py and a safety card. Open a pull request against the repository under packages/ and add it to registry.json. Every package someone contributes is one no one else has to write.