Welcome to PyLabRobot’s documentation!

PyLabRobot is a hardware agnostic, pure Python library for liquid handling robots and accessories.

PyLabRobot provides a layer of general-purpose abstractions over robot functions, with various device drivers for communicating with different kinds of robots. Right now we only support Hamilton STAR and STARLet, Tecan EVO, and Opentrons robots, but we will soon support many more. All of these robots can be controlled using any computer running any operating system. We also provide a browser-based Visualizer which can visualize the state of the deck during a run, and testing backends which do not require access to a robot.

• GitHub repository: PyLabRobot/pylabrobot

• Forum: https://forums.pylabrobot.org

• Paper: https://www.cell.com/device/fulltext/S2666-9986(23)00170-9

Note

PyLabRobot is different from PyHamilton. While both packages are created by the same lab and both provide a Python interfaces to Hamilton robots, PyLabRobot aims to provide a universal interface to many different robots runnable on many different computers, where PyHamilton is a Windows only interface to Hamilton’s VENUS.

Getting Started

• Installation
• Contributing to PyLabRobot
• Configuring PLR

Contributing

• Contributing a new type of machine to PLR
• Adding support for a new machine of an existing type
• How to Open Source

Liquid handling

• Basic liquid handling
  • Setting up a connection with the robot
  • Creating the deck layout
  • Picking up tips
  • Aspirating and dispensing
  • Dropping tips
• Using the Visualizer
  • Setting up a connection with the robot
  • Build the deck layout: Assigning plates and tips
  • Liquid handling
  • Shutting down
• Using trackers
  • Tip trackers
  • Volume trackers
• Writing robot agnostic methods
  • Keeping the layout separate from the protocol
  • Strictness checking
• Hamilton STAR
  • iSWAP Module

Resources

• Resources Introduction
• Defining custom resources
• Plates
• Plate Carriers

Plate reading

• Plate Readers
• Cytation 5

Pumps

• Pumps

Scales

• Scales

Temperature controlling

• Temperature controllers (heaters and coolers)

Tilting

• Tilting

Heater shakers

• Heater Shakers

Fans

• Fans

API documentation

• Public API: pylabrobot package
  • Subpackages
    • pylabrobot.config package
      • pylabrobot.config.config.Config
      • pylabrobot.config.io.ConfigReader
      • pylabrobot.config.io.ConfigWriter
      • pylabrobot.config.io.file.FileReader
      • pylabrobot.config.io.file.FileWriter
      • pylabrobot.config.formats.json_config.JsonLoader
      • pylabrobot.config.formats.json_config.JsonSaver
      • pylabrobot.config.formats.ini_config.IniLoader
      • pylabrobot.config.formats.ini_config.IniSaver
    • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine
      • Machine
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.name
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.setup_finished
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.__init__
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.assign_child_resource
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.center
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.centers
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.copy
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.deregister_did_assign_resource_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.deregister_did_unassign_resource_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.deregister_state_update_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.deregister_will_assign_resource_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.deregister_will_unassign_resource_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.deserialize
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_absolute_location
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_absolute_rotation
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_absolute_size_x
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_absolute_size_y
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_absolute_size_z
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_all_children
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_anchor
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_resource
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_size_x
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_size_y
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.get_size_z
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.load_all_state
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.load_from_json_file
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.load_state
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.load_state_from_file
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.register_did_assign_resource_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.register_did_unassign_resource_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.register_state_update_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.register_will_assign_resource_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.register_will_unassign_resource_callback
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.rotate
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.rotated
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.save
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.save_state_to_file
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.serialize
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.serialize_all_state
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.serialize_state
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.setup
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.stop
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.unassign
      • pylabrobot.machines.machine.Machine.unassign_child_resource
    • pylabrobot.machines.backends.machine.MachineBackend
      • MachineBackend
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.machine.MachineBackend.__init__
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.machine.MachineBackend.deserialize
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.machine.MachineBackend.serialize
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.machine.MachineBackend.setup
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.machine.MachineBackend.stop
    • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend
      • USBBackend
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.__init__
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.deserialize
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.get_available_devices
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.list_available_devices
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.read
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.serialize
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.setup
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.stop
      • pylabrobot.machines.backends.usb.USBBackend.write
    • pylabrobot.heating_shaking package
      • pylabrobot.heating_shaking.heater_shaker.HeaterShaker
      • Backends
    • pylabrobot.liquid_handling package
      • pylabrobot.liquid_handling.liquid_handler.LiquidHandler
      • Backends
      • Operations
      • Strictness
    • pylabrobot.plate_reading package
      • pylabrobot.plate_reading.plate_reader.PlateReader
      • Backends
    • pylabrobot.pumps package
      • pylabrobot.pumps.pump.Pump
      • Backends
    • pylabrobot.only_fans package
      • pylabrobot.only_fans.fan.Fan
      • Backends
    • pylabrobot.resources package
      • pylabrobot.resources.Carrier
      • pylabrobot.resources.Container
      • pylabrobot.resources.Coordinate
      • pylabrobot.resources.Deck
      • pylabrobot.resources.ItemizedResource
      • pylabrobot.resources.utils.create_equally_spaced_2d
      • pylabrobot.resources.Lid
      • pylabrobot.resources.Liquid
      • pylabrobot.resources.PetriDish
      • pylabrobot.resources.Plate
      • pylabrobot.resources.PlateCarrier
      • pylabrobot.resources.Resource
      • pylabrobot.resources.ResourceStack
      • pylabrobot.resources.tip.Tip
      • pylabrobot.resources.TipCarrier
      • pylabrobot.resources.TipRack
      • pylabrobot.resources.Trough
      • pylabrobot.resources.Tube
      • pylabrobot.resources.TubeCarrier
      • pylabrobot.resources.TubeRack
      • pylabrobot.resources.Well
      • Azenta
      • Boekel
      • Corning Axygen
      • Corning Costar
      • Falcon
      • Greiner
      • Hamilton
      • Limbro
      • ML Star resources
      • Opentrons
      • Porvair
      • Revvity
      • Tecan
      • Thermo Fisher
      • VWR
      • Tip trackers
      • Volume trackers
    • pylabrobot.scales package
      • pylabrobot.scales.scale.Scale
      • Backends
    • pylabrobot.shaking package
      • pylabrobot.shaking.shaker.Shaker
      • Backends
    • pylabrobot.temperature_controlling package
      • pylabrobot.temperature_controlling.temperature_controller.TemperatureController
      • pylabrobot.temperature_controlling.opentrons.OpentronsTemperatureModuleV2
      • Backends
    • pylabrobot.tilting package
      • pylabrobot.tilting.tilter.Tilter
      • Backends
    • pylabrobot.utils package
      • pylabrobot.utils.file_parsing
      • pylabrobot.utils.list
      • pylabrobot.utils.positions

Indices and tables

• Index

• Module Index

• Search Page