Using Old Laboratory Equipment with Modern Web-of-Things Standards: a Smart Laboratory with LabThings Retro

TL;DR

LabThings Retro enables old laboratory equipment to be integrated into modern web-of-things ecosystems, facilitating automated, smart experiments by retrofitting existing devices with open web standards.

Contribution

We developed and demonstrated a retrofit approach that allows old lab instruments to communicate using modern web standards, promoting integration and automation.

Findings

Successful retrofitting of old equipment with Web-of-Things standards

Enabling closed-loop feedback with optical microscope, imaging, and fluid control

Enhanced interoperability of diverse laboratory devices

Abstract

There has been an increasing, and welcome, Open Hardware trend towards science teams building and sharing their designs for new instruments. These devices, often built upon low-cost microprocessors and micro-controllers, can be readily connected to enable complex, automated, and smart experiments. When designed to use open communication web standards, devices from different laboratories and manufacturers can be controlled using a single protocol, and even communicate with each other. However, science labs still have a majority of old, perfectly functional, equipment which tends to use older, and sometimes proprietary, standards for communications. In order to encourage the continued and integrated use of this equipment in modern automated experiments, we develop and demonstrate LabThings Retro. This allows us to retrofit old instruments to use modern web-of-things standards, which we demonstrate with closed-loop feedback involving an optical microscope, digital imaging and fluid pumping.