NOMENCLATURE IN LABORATORY ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION (IUPAC RECOMMENDATIONS 1994)

These recommended terms have been prepared to help provide a uniform a pproach to terminology and notation in laboratory automation and robot ics. Since the terminology used in laboratory automation and robotics has been derived from diverse backgrounds, it is often vague, imprecis e, and in some cases, in conflict with classical automation and roboti c nomenclature. These definitions have been assembled from standards, monographs, dictionaries, journal articles, and documents of internati onal organizations emphasizing laboratory and industrial automation an d robotics. When appropriate, definitions have been taken directly fro m the original source and identified with that source. However, in som e cases no acceptable definition could be found and a new definition w as prepared to define the object, term, or action. Attention has been given to defining specific robot types, coordinate systems, parameters , attributes, communication protocols and associated workstations and hardware. Diagrams are included to illustrate specific concepts that c an best be understood by visualization. It is hoped that these assembl ed definitions will be useful for the practitioners of laboratory auto mation and robotics.