Integrating and Extending Three Open-Source Real-Time Experiment Control Systems

Joan And Sanford I. Weill Medical College Of Cornell University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports an effort to integrate three open-source experiment control systems, and then extend their utility as a single freely-available, powerful, and flexible system for real-time control of biological experiments. In recent years, real-time control of instrumentation has emerged as an important tool for biological experimentation. Traditionally, the ability of experimentalists to perturb a system has been limited to pre-programmed patterns or flexible, operator-controlled protocols limited by human reflexes. In contrast, real-time control allows the researcher to utilize dynamic manipulations with characteristics (e.g., pulse timing and amplitude) that are updated on-the-fly according to automated analysis of rapidly-measured system parameters. Thus, real-time methods can dynamically probe ion-channel function by networking simulated and real excitable cells at rates of tens of thousands of interventions per second. The specific aims of this project are: 1. Unification of three existing real-time control systems developed independently by the PI and his two collaborators in this project. Each system has particular strengths that complement the weaknesses of the others. The merged system will be based on a variant of Linux known as Real-Time Linux. Initial work will identify and merge fundamental core parts of each of the three systems' source code, after which a central source-code repository will facilitate the coordinated development of new C and C++ code by the three groups. In comparison to these first-generation systems, the unified system will have greatly expanded functionality. 2. Development of performance-monitoring metrics and tools that can monitor system performance (speed, latency, and jitter) 3. Creation of an extensive real-time experiment application library containing general-purpose, application-specific, and teaching-lab experiment-control plug-ins. 4. Optimize end-user ease of use at every stage, from installation to plug-in modification.