title: PLACE: an open-source python package for laboratory automation, control, and experimentation.
abstract: In modern laboratories, software can drive the full experimental process from data acquisition to storage, processing, and analysis. The automation of laboratory data acquisition is an important consideration for every laboratory. When implementing a laboratory automation scheme, important parameters include its reliability, time to implement, adaptability, and compatibility with software used at other stages of experimentation. In this article, we present an open-source, flexible, and extensible Python package for Laboratory Automation, Control, and Experimentation (PLACE). The package uses modular organization and clear design principles; therefore, it can be easily customized or expanded to meet the needs of diverse laboratories. We discuss the organization of PLACE, data-handling considerations, and then present an example using PLACE for laser-ultrasound experiments. Finally, we demonstrate the seamless transition to post-processing and analysis with Python through the development of an analysis module for data produced by PLACE automation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand jami.johnson@auckland.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Jami L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tom Wörden
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Kasper
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: van Wijk
mesh_terms: D057205:Automation, Laboratory / Q000379:methods*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Python; laboratory automation; laser ultrasound; open source