Specimen inspection automation system and method for managing empty specimen carrier

Abstract

A sample examination automation system includes a conveyance line, a large-scale sample carrier buffer, an analyzer coupling unit, and a conveyance managing unit. The conveyance line conveys a sample carrier. One or a plurality of sample containers is mountable on the sample carrier. The large-scale sample carrier buffer stores a plurality of the sample carriers. The analyzer coupling unit, which is couplable to an analyzer, incorporates a sample carrier sub-buffer capable of storing the sample carriers by an amount smaller than an amount of the large-scale sample carrier buffer. The conveyance managing unit has a function of controlling a sample carrier conveyance destination. The conveyance managing unit is configured to determine an amount of the sample carriers supplied to the sample carrier sub-buffer via the large-scale sample carrier buffer according to a storage situation of the sample carriers in the sample carrier sub-buffer.

Claims

1. A sample examination automation system comprising: a conveyance line that conveys a sample carrier, one or a plurality of sample containers being mountable on the sample carrier; a large-scale sample carrier buffer that stores the plurality of sample carriers; an analyzer coupling unit couplable to an analyzer, the analyzer coupling unit incorporating a sample carrier sub-buffer, the sample carrier sub-buffer being capable of storing the sample carriers by an amount smaller than an amount of the large-scale sample carrier buffer; and a conveyance managing unit that has a function of controlling a sample carrier conveyance destination, wherein the large-scale sample carrier buffer is disposed outside the analyzer coupling unit, and the conveyance managing unit is configured to determine an amount of the sample carriers supplied to the sample carrier sub-buffer via the large-scale sample carrier buffer according to a storage situation of the sample carriers in the sample carrier sub-buffer; and wherein the conveyance managing unit minimizes a number of sample carriers being supplied to the analyzer coupling unit and determines whether to supply the sample carriers from the large-scale sample carrier buffer based on the number of sample carriers being supplied to the analyzer coupling unit.

2. The sample examination automation system according to claim 1, wherein the conveyance managing unit is configured to determine the amount of the sample carriers supplied to the sample carrier sub-buffer via the large-scale sample carrier buffer on the conveyance line according to the conveyance destinations and an amount of the sample carriers on which the sample containers are mounted being conveyed on the conveyance line.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a system layout diagram that includes a pre-processing conveying unit, a conveyance line, and an analyzer coupling unit according to one embodiment of the present invention.

(2) FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting a determination method to supply sample carriers to a sub-buffer.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

(3) Among the present inventions disclosed in this application, an outline of the representative one will be briefly described as follows.

(4) An example of a sample examination automation system will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a system layout diagram that includes a pre-processing conveying unit, a conveyance line, and an analyzer coupling unit according to one embodiment of the present invention.

(5) The sample examination automation system includes a pre-processing unit 106 that performs pre-processing on a sample, a conveyance line 101 that conveys the sample, an analyzer coupling unit 103 that conveys the sample to an analyzer 102, a large-scale sample carrier buffer 104 that buffers sample carriers, and a conveyance managing unit 1 that controls and manages these units. The analyzer coupling unit 103 internally includes a sample carrier sub-buffer 105 that can buffer a small amount of sample carriers. Additionally, there may be a case where a plurality of the analyzers 102 and the analyzer coupling units 103 are disposed in the system. The same applies to the large-scale sample carrier buffer 104.

(6) Next, a procedure for conveying the sample carrier will be described.

(7) Based on an instruction by the conveyance managing unit 1, the introduced sample is mounted on the sample carrier, the pre-processing unit 106 performs pre-processing, such as centrifugal force, opening, sample check, and divided injection, on the sample, and the sample is conveyed to the conveyance line 101. For conveyance to the inside of the analyzer 102 that measures the sample, the sample carrier is conveyed up to a transfer position 107 inside the analyzer coupling unit 103. The sample is extracted from the sample carrier in the transfer position 107 and conveyed to the inside of the analyzer 102. The empty sample carrier from which the sample has been extracted is collected to the sample carrier sub-buffer 105 inside the analyzer coupling unit 103. In a case where the sample carrier sub-buffer 105 is full, the sample carrier is collected to the large-scale sample carrier buffer 104.

(8) The returned sample after completion of the measurement by the analyzer 102 is mounted on the sample carrier again in the transfer position 107. Then, the empty sample carrier is carried out from the sample carrier sub-buffer 105 inside the analyzer coupling unit 103 to the transfer position 107. The sample carrier on which the sample is mounted is carried out from the analyzer coupling unit 103 to the conveyance line 101 to be conveyed to the next conveyance destination.

(9) In a case where the samples are continuously returned from the analyzer 102, the sample carriers in the sample carrier sub-buffer 105 possibly run short. Therefore, the sample carriers can be supplied from the large-scale sample carrier buffer 104 to the analyzer coupling unit 103.

(10) An excessive supply of the sample carriers results in the large number of sample carriers conveyed on the conveyance line 101, possibly causing a congestion. To reduce the number of supplied sample carriers to the minimum, the conveyance managing unit 1 manages the number of sample carriers being supplied to the analyzer coupling unit 103. Based on the number of managed sample carriers, whether to supply the samples from the large-scale sample carrier buffer 104 is determined.

(11) FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting the determination method to supply the sample carriers to the sub-buffer.

(12) The conveyance managing unit 1 performs determination on each sub-buffer and supplies the sample carriers.

(13) First, a full-detection sensor of the sub-buffer is confirmed (Step 201). When the sub-buffer is full, the process is terminated.

(14) When not full, whether the sample carrier is present in the sub-buffer (remaining amount of sub-buffer) is calculated by the following calculation formula (Step 202).
remaining amount of sub-buffer=the number of residual sample carriers in the sub-buffer/the maximum number of sample carriers that can be housed in the sub-buffer  Calculation formula:

(15) Whether the calculated remaining amount of sub-buffer is equal to or more than the minimum necessary amount is confirmed (Step 203).

(16) When the remaining amount of sub-buffer is unknown or small (less than ¼), the supply of the sample carriers is determined (Step 208), and the process is terminated.

(17) When the remaining amount of sub-buffer is the minimum necessary amount (¼ or more), whether the amount of the sample carriers in the sub-buffer and the sample carriers being supplied to the sub-buffer are sufficient (effective amount of sub-buffer) is calculated by the following calculation formula (Step 204).
effective amount of sub-buffer=(the number of residual carriers in the sub-buffer+the number of sample carriers on which samples are not mounted being supplied to the sub-buffer)/the maximum number of sample carriers that can be housed in the sub-buffer  Calculation formula:

(18) Whether the calculated effective amount of sub-buffer is a sufficient amount is confirmed (Step 205).

(19) When the effective amount of sub-buffer is insufficient (less than ½), the supply of the sample carriers is determined (Step 208) and the process is terminated.

(20) When the effective amount of sub-buffer is sufficient (½ or more), whether the sample carriers in the sub-buffer, the sample carriers being supplied to the sub-buffer, and the sample carriers on which the samples are mounted being conveyed to the analyzer coupling unit in which the sub-buffer is present are too many (predicted amount of sub-buffer) is calculated by the following calculation formula (Step 206).
predicted amount of sub-buffer: (the number of residual carriers in the sub-buffer+the number of sample carriers on which samples are not mounted being supplied to the sub-buffer+the number of sample carriers on which the samples are mounted being conveyed to the analyzer coupling unit in which the sub-buffer is preset)/the maximum number of sample carriers that can be housed in the sub-buffer  Calculation formula:

(21) Whether the calculated predicted amount of sub-buffer is too large is confirmed (Step 207).

(22) When the predicted amount of sub-buffer is too large (¾ or more), the process is terminated straight.

(23) When the predicted amount of sub-buffer is not too large (less than ¾), the supply of the sample carriers is determined (Step 208) to terminate the process.

(24) As described above, in this embodiment, the two kinds of buffers are provided, which are the large-scale sample carrier buffer storing the large amount of empty sample carriers, and the sample carrier sub-buffers installed near the location where the empty sample carriers are used and having the minimum buffer capacity.

(25) After the sample is extracted from the sample carrier on which the sample has been mounted, the empty sample carrier is collected to the sample carrier sub-buffer.

(26) To install the sample on the sample carrier, the empty sample carrier is supplied from the sample carrier sub-buffer.

(27) The number of empty sample carriers held in each sample carrier sub-buffer, the number of empty sample carriers being conveyed to each sample carrier sub-buffer, and the number of sample carriers on which the samples that would be housed in each sample carrier sub-buffer are mounted being conveyed to the analyzer are managed.

(28) Based on the numbers of sample carriers managed, the empty sample carriers are supplied from the large-scale sample carrier buffer to the sample carrier sub-buffer in the range that the sample carrier sub-buffer can house the sample carriers and so as not to run out the empty sample carriers.

(29) With the above-described configuration, the delay of conveyance due to the stop of supply of the empty sample carriers can be minimally reduced without disposing a conveyance line for empty sample carrier, without increase in size of the apparatus, or without causing a congestion of the conveyance line by the empty sample carriers.

(30) Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments but includes various modifications. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail for ease of understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not necessarily limited to one that includes all configurations described above.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

(31) 1 conveyance managing unit 101 conveyance line 102 analyzer 103 analyzer coupling unit 104 large-scale sample carrier buffer 105 sample carrier sub-buffer 106 pre-processing unit 107 transfer position