From the Editor…

Mobile robotics have been selected for this issue of LAN since this method of transportation is becoming recognized as the latest high-tech solution to labor costs in the health care field. Mobile robots are experiencing increasing popularity among hospitals since medical facilities are facing the most severe financial crisis in recent memory. Using professional staff to deliver medical specimens is a very expensive delivery options used by many hospitals. However, the transportation demands of hospitals are difficult because of the rapid delivery needs and hospital corridors are filled with patients in wheel chairs or patients who have a compromised ability to move out of the path of a moving robot. Recent advances in guidance and collision avoidance technology has made it possible for mobile robots to move in crowded corridors, open doors, and even ride elevators. As technologists find themselves with more work to do with fewer resources, transportation automation will relieve them of the need to walk between laboratories or between workbenches to transport medical specimens.

Pharmaceutical and analytical laboratories can also benefit from the ability to deliver small to medium size batches of material throughout the laboratory complex without using highly trained technologists for this task. Combinatorial chemistry will place increasing demands on the laboratory infrastructure by producing vast quantities of compounds which must be transported to screening laboratories and to storage. In the near future, mobile robots will become an integrated part of the analytical process by providing “just-in-time” delivery of samples or reagents.

Three companies have engineered their robots for the demands of the laboratory environment. In this article we provide details about the HelpMate (HelpMate Robotics Inc., Danbury, CN), RoboCart (CCRI, Lake Arrowhead, CA), and the Transporter (Saurer Automation, Holland, MI). Additional mobile robots are available on the market. As these become more widely used in laboratories we will provide a report on them in future issues of LAN.

On the facing page, is a summary of the topics to be covered in the upcoming LabAutomation conference to be held in San Diego beginning on January 18th. This meeting promises to be more exciting and comprehensive than any previous LabAutomation '97 conferences. For the first time, the conference will organized by the Association for Laboratory Automation. [The ICAR meeting will continued to be held in Switzerland under the organizational skills of Scitec S.A (Lausanne, Switzerland)]. The exhibit area with 72 booths has been sold out and the oral program finalized. A full range of short courses by instructors of the highest caliber has been organized for the first two days. The next issue of LAN will focus on the upcoming conference by presenting the detailed preliminary program and highlights of awards, short courses, and new exhibitors.

Sincerely,

Robin A. FelderEditor