Settings and Snapshots

Settings

The settings.py contains master settings for all robotic system operations. It includes operation settings, default conditions, instrument settings, processing settings, station configurations, file paths, and more. Be sure to review all settings listed here before running a robotic workflow!

  • TESTING OPERATION SETTINGS: These settings indicate whether hardware features should actually be used when jobs are launched. For example, if RUN_POTENT is set to False, no signal will be sent to the potentiostats and no measurements will actually be gathered; if RUN_ROBOT is set to False, the robot will not actually move. These exist for testing only. When running a real workflow, these should all be set to True. Additionally, this section contains CALIB_DATE, the date that should be used to gather calibration data from database (should be blank for a real run), and POT_DELAY, the seconds to delay in place of potentiostat measurement when RUN_POTENT is False.

  • OPERATION SETTING: Setting for system operations including RERUN_FIZZLED_ROBOT, FIZZLE_CONCENTRATION_FAILURE, FIZZLE_DIRTY_ELECTRODE, EXIT_ZERO_VOLUME, and WAIT_FOR_BALANCE. More explination for each setting exists in the settings.py file.

  • DEFAULT CONDITIONS: Default values for several condition parameters including temperature, concentration, and working electrode radius. This section also contains the setting for default units of measurements.

  • ROBOT SETTINGS: Robot settings including the robot IP address, the grip target values for open and close, and perturbation amounts.

  • INSTRUMENT SETTINGS: Comp ports and executions files for the instruments along with default instrument measurement settings such as sample interval, sensitivity, pulse width, wait times, etc. These are used when the ExpFlow Robotic Workflow action parameters were left blank.

  • PROCESSING SETTINGS: Processing settings such as processing procedures and plotting settings.

  • CALIBRATION SETTINGS: Setting for calibration jobs such as whether to perform a KCl CA calibration and the conductivity of DI water. This section also contains dictionaries of FORMAL_POTENTIALS and SOLVENT_DENSITIES that are used in generating the reagents database collection.

  • PORT ADDRESS: COM ports for Arduino, balance, etc.

  • STATIONS: List of all hardware stations. These include DISPENSE_STATIONS, MEASUREMENT_STATIONS, ACTION_STATIONS, and VIALS. If a station or vial is listed here, the robot will think it is an option for executing jobs. This section also contains the RINSE_VIALS setting which matches each measurement station with the vial home position that should be used to rinse it. There should be one rinse vial per measurementstation. The ELEVATOR_DICT setting pairs the elevator name (e.g., “A_01”) with its Aurdino identifier (e.g., 1).

  • PATH VARIABLES (and FIREWORKS PATH VARIABLES): Paths for key directories and files such as the data storage directory, key snapshots, and FireWorks configuration files.

Running the settings file via python settings.py will set up the necessary environment variable for using the Robotics API.

Snapshots

The snapshots directory contains JSON snapshots for each station and vial home location. Files named <station_name>.json give the position of the robot where the vial sits directly in the station. Files named pre_<station_name>.json give the position the robot should be before/after moving to the station. Note that some snapshots give Cartesian coordinates while others give actuator angles. Snapshots for stations and home positions where the robot needs to move above/below the final location before and after going there (raies_amount in standard_action classes) must be Cartesian.

The snapshots are generated and adjusted through the Kinova Web Application (http://192.168.1.10/, when the robot is turned on). They are then downloaded to the snapshots directory and given the appropriate name.