Kolspecimen transportation system
First Claim
1. A specimen transport system having a plurality of variably combinable modules, comprising:
- a plurality of modules configured to be combined to create a plurality of paths for transporting a specimen from an upstream one of said plurality of modules to downstream ones of said plurality of modules, wherein the plurality of modules include an intermediate module placed in between adjacent ones of said plurality of modules along at least one of said paths,the intermediate module having a connector that connects an upstream one of said modules at an upstream side of the intermediate module and a connector that connects a downstream one of said modules at a downstream side of the intermediate module, a transporter that transports a specimen from the upstream side of the intermediate module to the downstream side of the intermediate module, and a controller configured to control transmission of a destination signal for the specimen received from the upstream one of said modules at the upstream side of the intermediate module to the downstream one of said modules at the downstream side of the intermediate module and configured to control transmission of a node signal, indicating a possibility of transport along a path downstream of said intermediate module, received from the downstream one of said modules at the downstream side of the intermediate module to the upstream one of said modules at the upstream side of the intermediate module, wherebythe plurality of modules are configured to be variably combined with each other with different ones of said plurality of modules variably positioned adjacent one another, with adjacent modules connected to each other to create variability in the plurality of paths,each module downstream along said plurality of paths transports a specimen from the upstream side of that module to the downstream side of that module based on a destination signal corresponding to the specimen received from a module upstream from that module so that the specimen is transported along a path corresponding to the destination signal, andwherein said system is configured to correlate for each of the paths, a node signal indicating possibility/impossibility of transport at that path and to form a node signal array made of a plurality of the node signals for the plurality of paths, and the intermediate module is configured to transmit under control of the controller a node signal array acquired from the downstream one of said modules at the downstream side of the intermediate module to the upstream one of said modules at the upstream side of the intermediate module.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A specimen transportation system is configured from linear modules, turn modules, and connection modules. The modules can freely combine with one another. Moreover, the modules form multiple paths through which specimen racks outputted from one specimen output device are transported to multiple analysis devices. When transporting a specimen rack from an upstream side to a downstream side, each module attaches a destination signal associated with the specimen rack to the specimen rack and transfers the destination signal to the downstream side. As a consequence of each module transporting the specimen rack from the upstream side to the downstream side that corresponds to the destination signal, the specimen rack becomes transported along a path that corresponds to the destination signal.
8 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A specimen transport system having a plurality of variably combinable modules, comprising:
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a plurality of modules configured to be combined to create a plurality of paths for transporting a specimen from an upstream one of said plurality of modules to downstream ones of said plurality of modules, wherein the plurality of modules include an intermediate module placed in between adjacent ones of said plurality of modules along at least one of said paths, the intermediate module having a connector that connects an upstream one of said modules at an upstream side of the intermediate module and a connector that connects a downstream one of said modules at a downstream side of the intermediate module, a transporter that transports a specimen from the upstream side of the intermediate module to the downstream side of the intermediate module, and a controller configured to control transmission of a destination signal for the specimen received from the upstream one of said modules at the upstream side of the intermediate module to the downstream one of said modules at the downstream side of the intermediate module and configured to control transmission of a node signal, indicating a possibility of transport along a path downstream of said intermediate module, received from the downstream one of said modules at the downstream side of the intermediate module to the upstream one of said modules at the upstream side of the intermediate module, whereby the plurality of modules are configured to be variably combined with each other with different ones of said plurality of modules variably positioned adjacent one another, with adjacent modules connected to each other to create variability in the plurality of paths, each module downstream along said plurality of paths transports a specimen from the upstream side of that module to the downstream side of that module based on a destination signal corresponding to the specimen received from a module upstream from that module so that the specimen is transported along a path corresponding to the destination signal, and wherein said system is configured to correlate for each of the paths, a node signal indicating possibility/impossibility of transport at that path and to form a node signal array made of a plurality of the node signals for the plurality of paths, and the intermediate module is configured to transmit under control of the controller a node signal array acquired from the downstream one of said modules at the downstream side of the intermediate module to the upstream one of said modules at the upstream side of the intermediate module. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification