Software Platform Architecture for Laboratory Workstation Software
Tomi Tuhkanen · Theseus (Ammattikorkeakoulujen) · 2013
The aim of the thesis was to design an architecture for a workstation software platform to control laboratory instruments and to decide technologies that were used with the platform. The platform needed to support multiple instruments with different functionalities and also support multiple simultaneous instruments. The application, based on the architecture, needed to function as a stand-alone application and as an automation service a. The plat-form was to be developed with Microsoft .NET. The project was started with a study of existing architectures and design guides. An aim was to find some common factors and enterprise design patterns that would help in de-signing a preliminary architecture. Brief technological studies were carried out to decide the technologies to be used with the software platform. Based on the study, the first draft of the architecture was designed and the implementation of the platform was started with the chosen technologies. The architecture design and im-plementation was done in an iterative manner, so the design kept evolving through the first months of the implementation as specifications and the domain knowledge increased. As a result, modular and decoupled architecture seemed to fit well for the foundation of this kind of application. It gives enough flexibility, so the design can provide functionality for different use cases, and changes to design only affect small parts of architecture. This kind of architecture allows the application to be used in multiple different ways, for example as a centralized service or as a stand-alone application, and required modules can be used with an automation service.