Tecan Fluent Scheduling

[KarlCahill]

Hi!

Im working on a super cool but complicated setup of a Tecan fluent and would appreciate advice on scheduling!

Background: We have Tecan fluent designed to culture cells. Alot of external devices are integrated to allow extended periods of walk away time (Cytomat incubator, cytomat hotel, rotanata, decapper, pumps for media and more…)

Everything works smoothly! However we have hit a block on the road on the software side aloowing this walk away time.

We esentially only have two methods: “Maintainance” and “preperation”. Maintainance is a continous process that occurs every 3 days that maintain the cell population. “Preperation” is a series of processes that are sequentially executed with 2-3 day in between for incubation time. The question is now, how we execute this in practice…

As far as my knowledge goes, its not possible to run multiple methods simultainosly?

So here are the alternative options im contemplating and would appreciate your advice!

1. Create a single meethod containing all processes. Technically possible however im discouraged by this approach for a few reasons:

   1. We would esentially need a single endless method to run.
   2. We would need some dynamic input. Each preperation executed can be adjusted to output a number of plates, it should also be possible to not start prepare cells on a given day.
   3. Im unsure the complexity is handled well nativly within the Tecan scheduler. As we are working with cell culturing the number of processes executed would need to change over the first inital week or so to have enough cells to work with. meaning, the number and the processes executed each day are far from fixed.
   4. Recovery from such a complex method seems like a tall order

2. Alternative option would be to wrap each process within a method and execute it via the API.

   1. Usign Python: I was able to execute a method using python and pywin32. Could a reliable schedulder be built using python and the Tecan API only or are there certain limitations that would be good to know about before dwelling down this path?
   2. Using VBA or C#: Im not too familiar with programming in these langauges but it seems they are more “native”. If customly building the scheduling logic, would there be an advantage to using these langues?
   3. Using scheduling software: There are multiple dedicated scheduling softwares where a complex workflow also could be more easily managed like GBO, Cellario, Momentum. What would be the advantage to use a dedicated scheduling software, and if so do you prefer one over another?

These are many question to start off with… but any input is appreceated, thank you!

Best,
Karl

[Optimize]

Welcome to the forum,

This sounds an impressive system !

And yes, the FluentControl scheduler will likely be the limiting factor in getting an optimized workflow

I’ve designed & developed similar configurations with same devices BUT the software has been v different,

You could try Genera from Retisoft or Monomer Bio (Monomer Bio) offers a great software suite designed around cell culture workflows

[Stefan]

Python can definitely do it as long as you really know what you want to build (it sounds like you do)

[Evolucian]

The scheduling softwares you mentioned are all expensive but will give you most of the out-of-the-box functionality you need. But it sounds like your Fluent methods already have the integration commands (to Cytomat, etc.) built in and it doesn’t seem worth it to purchase any of those.

If you already have the Fluent Scheduler software, it’s worth exploring its features a bit more as you’ll have Tecan support available.

Otherwise since you’re interested in the Python solutions, you should take a look at the open source scheduler thread: Open source scheduler . It sounds like you’ve already done most of the work to create a simple Tecan driver, but you need to manage workflows and potentially set up some sort of GUI.

[Snowball]

Two or more processes can be scheduled in parallel if they both have the same Base Worktable selected at the Worktable dropdown (below Process name)

To define start times and launch processes in a more flexible way at a specified date & time, I suggest to look into the Task functionality where one can add processes either by script commands Create Task & Start Tasks or by adding a *.twl task input file to the C:\ProgramData\Tecan\VisionX\Worklists folder. See FluentControl Manual chapters called ‘Support for Cell-based Assays‘ & ‘Task Input File‘

For example a ‘Maintenance’ process that at the end will create a task to start again a fresh Maintenance process in 3 days.

As alternative to the script commands Create Task & Start Tasks, you could also create a .twl file with the same kind of parameters and functionality and copy the file to the worklist folder. The twl file will get automatically recognized and converted from there. This task file can be generated during a process at runtime similar as above but generate the file by VB, Python etc.. or the file can be generated at any time outside of FluentControl by just adding a .twl file with the right syntax to the worklist folder. When the time for a task is due it will automatically start the process.